Gathering of the Seven
by Mina-Nanto
Summary: <html><head></head>Many years after Nazo's release, a evil being more powerful than him has broke out of the Master Emerald. Now, Sonic and co. must find the seven spirits and seal the villian again, this time forever. Has been put on hold and is now being re-writen.</html>
1. Prologue An Evil Released

**Gathering of the Seven**

Author's Note

For those of you who haven't watch the Nazo Unleashed flash animation by Chakra-X, or Sonic in general, I highly suggest that you do before reading any more of this. For those of you who have but not in a while, I suggest that you do the same. For those of you who know Sonic and Nazo by heart, keep reading this.

For those who know Nazo, we know that he was a villain. But from being born of all the negative energy of the Cyan Chaos Emerald. What if that were the case? What if he wasn't truly killed but returned to the Chaos Emerald he came from? What if, he was meant to be the good guy?

Nazo was in the Cyan Chaos Emerald longer than even Knuckles, longer than the great Echidna Clan. However, there are other spirits besides Nazo, and they live inside their own Chaos Emerald. "Who are these spirits?" you may ask. This will explain everything.

This will explain the breaking of Nazo and that there are more things than meets the eye of a natural person.

Long ago, right around the time of the creation of the Master Emerald and the seven Chaos Emeralds, eight spirits were said to be sealed inside these eight mystical gems. The spirits that were sealed inside the Chaos Emeralds were said to be the protectors of the seven elements: Water, Plant/Earth, Fire, Wind, Ice, Lightning and Cosmic. It was said that the spirits were to keep the seal of the Master Emerald strong enough so the Shadow wouldn't break free. If one of the spirits were to break out of their Chaos Emerald, then the seal of the Master Emerald were to get weaker and weaker until the spirit is back inside the Chaos Emerald. If the seal is weak enough, the Shadow of the Master Emerald will break out and the seven spirits will break out of the Chaos Emeralds.

Once out, the spirits of the Chaos Emeralds are vulnerable without a protector of Light with them. The spirits doesn't choose the protector, but the Chaos Emeralds do. Once the seven spirits are gathered, the protector unlocks his ultimate form and is able to seal back the Shadow of the Master Emerald back into his place. This has happened twice before prior to the story.

I respectfully do not Sonic and co. or Nazo, they belong to their rightful owners. I only own the OC's that are in here. Please enjoy this story for I will enjoy taking advice from all of you fellow readers and your comments.

Yours Truly, Mina-Nanto.

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><p><strong><em>Prologue<em>**

The moon shined its fullest high over an altar as seven different pillars circled around a large, green crystal. A cyan hedgehog with five quills standing on end, green eyes, 'v' shaped spikes on his back and red and blue shoes, stood in front of the crystal. He eyed it intently, as if he was searching for something. After a while, he felt a hand land on his shoulder so he looked up to see who it was. A yellow feline with amber eyes, white tipped ears, blue tipped tail, gray clothing and boots, was standing next to him with concern in her eyes. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"No I'm not." The hedgehog snapped as he yanked the feline's hand off his shoulder. "I Can't be able to rest peacefully for some reason, and it's driving me crazy."

"Is it because of Sonic and Shadow?"

"I don't know. Most likely considering those pests put me back in this hell hole."

"Would you two keep it down? I would actually like to get some rest." A tired, but yet, irritated voice said.

"The two looked up to see a young silver wolf with blue eyes and white warriors clothing. It looked like that she just woke up and they could tell because her fur was all messed up. "Sorry Katrina, Nazo is having anger issues again." The cat said striking a nerve on the hedgehog. Nazo delivered an irritated glare and the cat returned with a tongue sticking out for three seconds.

"Yeah, that's really attractive Aurora." Katrina said.

"Are we all having fights ore sleep problems?" Neither of the three had to look up since they knew the voice right away.

"Sure, that's coming from someone who starts 99% of the fight." Nazo said to a red feline with orange markings and wore flame clothing.

"And _that_ is coming from someone who _wants_ a fight." The feline said.

"Want to say that again, flame-head?" Nazo asked in a threatening voice as he walked up to the feline.

"Will you two stop acting like a couple of bratty children?" Aurora said as she stepped in between the feline and hedgehog that looked like they were going to get at each other's throats. "Scorch that is enough. And you, hedgehog, better not try to attack when I remove myself from this spot."

"What in the name of Chaos is going on here?" A voice shouted. The four turned to face a deep blue hedgehog with sky blue eyes, a lighter blue vest, pants and boots. On his right was a emerald fox with jade eyes and plant-like clothing. On the left of the blue fox was a lavender and white wolf with royal purple eyes and white clothing. She was giving Nazo a really nasty glare that could kill.

"Nothing you need to worry about because it ended, River." Aurora answered.

"No one was asking you, Lightning Wielder." The emerald fox said.

"I suggest that you cool down Jade or I'll do that for you." Nazo threatened as his hands were glowing in an icy aura.

"Nazo now is _not_ the time for that." The lavender wolf said calmly. "Right now, we have bigger problems to worry about."

"What do you mean by that, Mira?" Scorch asked.

"You remember how you broke out of the Chaos Emerald because you had so much negative energy many seasons ago, Nazo?"

"Something I will not forget." Nazo replied.

"Well it was because of that action that we have the bigger problem." River said, sharping Aurora's and Nazo's curiosity. "When you freed yourself, the seal of the Master Emerald was getting weaker. When those hedgehogs put you back in your place, the seal was to the point of its breaking. Now Raze will be able to break free of the Master Emerald and not even _you_ will be able to stop him in your ultimate form."

It was then that a dark void appeared in front of the moon, creating darkness over the shrine. The void spread across the sky as a powerful gust came from the very center. The crystal was surrounded in a dark aura as it changed from green to purple. The crystal then split open, sending a black beam to the center of the void. A hedgehog figure flew out of the crystal and towards the void. Soon, the altar started to crumble and the creatures hovered in the air. They followed the hedgehog towards the void.

On Angel Island, things were much worse as the Master Emerald were shattered. Knuckles, Tikal and Chaos in their solid forms, were staring in horror as a dark beam shot up from the spot where the Master Emerald was suppose to be resting. The seven Chaos Emeralds circled around the beam and spirits were starting to alternate from appearing to disappearing and appearing again. Then suddenly, a wave sent the Chaos Emeralds in all directions and a hedge-hog hopped out of the beam. He looked directly at the two echidna's and the God of Destruction, sending chills down the trio's spines.

"Well, this is a surprise." The hedgehog said. He had nine quills, five sticking up and four hanging down behind his back, purple streaks down the five quills and eyes, black clothing with purple symbols, and purple boots with a single white stripe. "I expected more echidnas, but they _did_ die out when a certain someone couldn't control his temper."

"Alright, how the hell did you manage to break free of your damn cell?" Knuckles asked. As he got ready to fight the hedgehog.

"You mean to tell me that your ancestors didn't tell you about the legends of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds? Wow, some kind of Guardian you turned out to be."

"What was that?"

"Knuckles, please calm down." Tikal urged Knuckles. "Let Chaos take care of this, we have to get out of here before it gets way out of hand for us."

"You're not going anywhere, Tikal!" The hedgehog said as he gathered energy to his hand. He formed a spear out of the energy and tossed it towards the ancient echidna.

Before the echidna could do anything, the spear hit her in the chest but it didn't go through her. However, blood was still leaking out from where the spear hit. Chaos and Knuckles rushed to her side. Knuckles pulled out the spear and Chaos used his healing abilities to stop the bleeding. Thankfully, the spear wasn't close to the heart or she would've died instantly from that.

"Who the hell are you?" Knuckles questioned.

"I think that it's better to keep that a little secret. For now, you three are what I need to complete phase one of my plan." The hedgehog said as he glowed in a purple-black aura.

Suddenly, the environment on Angel Island changed and it disappeared in a black sphere. Down on Mystic Ruins, one of the spirits from the Chaos Emeralds was watching the entire scene, but she couldn't be able to anything to stop the hedgehog. _This is bad, this is very bad._ She thought. _If Raze has taken them and Angel Island to that one place, then Tikal and Chaos will be wiped out from existence and Knuckles will lose his life without telling anyone who the heir to protecting the Master Emerald is._

The spirit was very weak and was nearly out of chaos energy. She then ran in a direction that seemed like Station Square as dark clouds covered the area in which Angel Island used to be. _If my theory is correct, then one of Knuckles' friends is in that city, I just hope that they can help me find the other protectors._


	2. Aurora the Cat

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respecfull owners. I own the OC's

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><p><strong>Chapter One- Aurora the Cat<strong>

On a rooftop of one of the apartment buildings in Station Square, a white hedgehog with blue eyes sat on the edge of the building and was looking at the sky over Mystic Ruins. She wore a blue t-shirt, jeans and hover shoes similar to the ones that Shadow wears, but these were gold and silver. On her right wrist was a gold ring and on her left was a bracelet. With her was an orange house cat with green eyes, white paws and wore a bell collar. "Looks like a storm is brewing over Mystic Ruins." The white she-cat said to her house cat. "I just hope that Knuckles is okay in there."

"He'll be okay." A male's voice said a few feet away from the hedgehog. She turned and saw a matured yellow, two tailed fox with chest fur, bangs and white tipped tails. "After all, he did survive Perfect Chaos' rage a few thousand years ago."

"I guess your right, Tails." The she-cat said with happiness, but her expression turned to sadness as she still turned back to look at Mystic Ruins. "But I just can't this feeling out of me that something's wrong."

"You're too worried about things, Miki." Tails said. "I'm sure it's probably nothing."

Just suddenly, Miki felt a jolt of energy go through her. She then, mentally, found herself running fast through the forest outside of Station Square. She ran and ran, until she spotted an injured humanoid cat. She snapped out of her state and immediately stood up. What incredible energy. I've never sensed this before, but it also feels weak. I have to help whoever that is.

"Miki, are you okay?" Tails asked.

"Someone's hurt and is on her way here." Miki said as she stood up. The house cat jumped onto Miki's left shoulder. "I'm going to see if I can find her on foot."

"I'll see if I can find her in air. Let me know when you find her." Tails said as he swirling his namesakes in the air like a helicopter.

"Right." With that, Miki jumped down from the building (thirty-five feet ABOVE SOLID CONCRETE mind you) with the orange cat still on her shoulder. She landed on the sidewalk with one knee bent as if she was kneeling before a royal family and stood up. She started running to the direction of the city's entrance, sensing the energy coming from there. Tails was flying over head but was going in a different direction than Miki was going.

Miki ran through the street, gaining looks from the other humans and mobians, but she didn't care. The image of the injured feline was still in her head and that's what is keeping Miki going. She soon reached the entrance, but their was lots of groups of humans and mobians. "Great, now I can't be able to see where she is." Miki said to herself. Unless I focus on finding that energy, I should be able to find her. Before she could, she heard a truck horn. She turned and saw that someone was on a crosswalk and a trailer was coming. She sensed the energy coming from there. That's her!

The spirit entered the city, but she was weak from exhaustion. She walked slowly, noticing everyone and everything that was around her. I can't believe I have to rely on my normal senses when finding these guys. Don't they have any sort of Chaos Energy like we do? Things really has changed over the few thousand years. The spirit headed for a crosswalk, not knowing that the walk signal wasn't on.

She stepped onto the road and her ears twiched as she heard something. She heard a honk from her right so she looked and saw a large trailer coming straight for her. Before the spirit could move, she was suddenly grabbed by someone and the two barrel rolled themselves to the other side of the road, safe on the sidewalk. The spirit looked at the person who saved her and saw that it was Miki.

"Are you okay?" Miki asked as she let the spirit go. "For a second I thought that you were going to move but considering how hurt you are I figured I come in and save ya'."

The spirit looked up at her in confusion. How the heck can she see me injured? Unless I'm in my physical form, then it would explain how she can see me. The spirit thought to herself. The white hedgehog was smiling for some reason. And what's with that smile? Is she happy that I can still walk on my own two feet? The spirit then noticed the orange house cat on Miki's shoulder. Is that her companion for combat? Or is it a familiar of someone?

"Hey, I asked if you were okay." Miki said, snapping the spirit out of her thoughts.

"Oh...y-yes. I'm alright. I'm just a little shaken that's all."

"That's good." Miki said in relief. "My name's Miki Hoshiko the Hedgehog. The cat on my shoulder is my pet, Mango." Miki held out her hand, startling the spirit.

The spirit then shook hands with Miki. "My name's Aurora the Cat. Doesn't Hoshiko mean 'Star Child' in some language?" The two stopped shaking hands.

"Actually yes, yes it does. And Miki means 'Beautiful Princess' in the same language as Hoshiko. I don't like to brag about it and the word Hoshiko brings bad memories of my past."

"Does it now? Well, sorry to hear that." Aurora said in sympathy. So, sadness is still around even after Perfect Chaos' wrath. Poor kid must've suffered through something that her name brings bad memories.

Mango let out a meow that grabbed the girl's attention. Luckily Miki understood. "Oh yeah, I better contact Tails and let him know that I found you." Miki said as she pulled out a small, watch like communicator.

"Who's Tails? Is he that two tailed fox that's named Miles Prower?" Aurora asked as Miki was pressing some buttons.

"You know him?"

"In a way yes, you see I..." Aurora suddenly felt weak and collapsed onto the hedgehog. She began to fade away from her form.

"Aurora?" Miki could only say before Aurora completly vanished. The only thing left of Aurora was the yellow Chaos Emerald. "What in the world is going on here?"

"Miki, are you okay down there?" Tails asked through the communicator.

"I'm heading for your workshop Tails, there's something going on and I need to figure out what it is." Miki started heading for the entrance.

"But it could be dangerous there."

"Tails, at this point, I just want to figure what the hell is going on and I don't have to time to sit around." With that, Miki turned off the communicator and put it back in her pocket. She got to the entrance and past it, going into the forest that was part of Mystic Ruins.


	3. Dark Creatures Attack

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's

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><p><strong>Chapter Two- Dark Creatures Attack; Miki's New Move<strong>

"And she took off like that?" Sonic asked through his communicator. He was running around Green Hill Zone when Tails called him in and told the cobalt hedgehog what happened in Station Square.

"Yeah, I didn't know where she was or where she was heading when she knew someone was hurt so I couldn't really stop her." Tails answered. "She said she was heading to my workshop in Mystic Ruins but there are some ominous clouds over that area so you think you can find her and watch out for her?"

"No problem bro. I'll make sure she's safe and sound." With that, Sonic turned off the communicator and headed south. _Miki, I know that your head strong but sometimes, you act like Knucklehead. Not thinking before acting._

It only took a second for Sonic to reach Station Square, but he was blazing along the streets. He slowed down when he reached to forest of Mystic Ruins. He looked up at the sky and saw the ominous clouds that Tails was talking about. "Looks like a heavy storm." Sonic said to himself. _It almost looks like the clouds that me and Shadow were in when we defeated Nazo._ The memory of the dark hedgehog appeared in the cobalt's head and how he almost destroyed the Earth. _I just hope that he's defeated for good._

Sonic stopped running, but was sliding against the ground when a lightning bolt almost hit him. There was another in a few different locations, but the strange was that there was no thunder following the lightning. "That's weird."

Just then, a weird looking lightning appeared and looked as if it hit the ground. When it did, the blue hedgehog could feel waves of electricity along the ground and then, there was a scream from a distance. Sonic knew who's scream that was. "Miki, I'm coming!"

Sonic ran in the direction of where Miki's scream was coming from. It took awhile for him to get to the location due to the lightning bolts, but he made it to the rocky part of Mystic Ruins, close to where Tails' workshop is supposed to be. He looked around and saw Mira on a high ledge swinging a gold sword around in front of her. She took a step back, but that was her last step before rolling down the rock hill. The white hedgehog flipped over and landed perfectly on her feet.

She turned and saw Sonic there. "A little help would've been nice!" She yelled at him.

"Sorry." Sonic said with a sweat drop. He then turned to where Miki fell and saw dark creatures. "What are those?"

"I don't know, they look like Chaos but they're black and have strange looking eyes and they all have this weird symbol on their heads." Miki said as the creatures slid down the slope that Miki came down from. The white hedgehog backed up to stand next to Sonic as she held her sword tight. "These guys are powerful and I can sense Chaos Energy running in them, but this energy is different from the Chaos Energy I'm used to sensing and I know that Knuckles would know what type this energy is."

The creatures reached ground level and they circled around the two hedgehogs. They had creepy, red eyes with a hint of orange in them and they were giving the heroes icy glare. They took a step closer as lightning bolts struck down. Miki's sword disappeared as a strange lightning struck down and fear struck her. "Any ideas Mik?"

"I have one, but I need you to distract these guys for me while I charge my Chaos Energy and my Ki energy at the same time." Miki said as the creatures took another step closer.

"Sounds good to me." Sonic said. Miki teleported to safe distance as lightning bolt struck down. The creatures then charged to Sonic, but the cobalt hedgehog jumped out of the way. They all jumped after him as they formed black spheres and tossed them at the blue hedgehog. Sonic kicked them all away and did his signature Spin Dash attack on all of them, sending them back to the ground. One creature came up from behind and sent Sonic flying to a near by rock wall.

He got out of the rubble and was on the ground. He turned towards the creatures with a smirk. "So you really want to play that way. Fine by me but this isn't going to last long."

Meanwhile from a distance, Miki was gathering all of her Chaos Energy to one hand and her Ki energy to her other hand which was proving quite a difficult task. As she focused, two orbs appeared, one for each hand. One was a yellow orb, representing her Chaos Energy, and the other was blue, representing her Ki energy. "Okay." She said as she locked her energies in place. She teleported to the location she was before, but airborne, and saw that creatures had Sonic cornered.

Miki brought her two hands to her side, combining the two energies to create a green orb. She gathered more energy to it, making it bigger and possibly, more powerful. "Sonic, move out of the way!" Miki shouted to the blue hedgehog. Sonic moved out of the way, leaving a cloud of dust. "Here it goes. **Chaos Ki Fusion!**" Miki then tossed the green orb down the dark creatures.

The dark creatures didn't have a chance to move when the orb made contact with them, exploding into a brilliant green light. When the light disappeared, so did the creatures. Using almost all of her energy, Miki fell out of the sky heading straight for the ground. Luckily, she was caught by the Blue Blur and they were on top of the ledge.

"That was some attack, Miki." Sonic said as he gently put Miki down so she can sit on the ledge.

"Yeah…but that took…a lot out of me…" Miki said while trying to catch her breath.

"So, why were you heading for Tails' workshop?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, I sensed this incredible energy so I tried to find it and I ended up meeting this girl named Aurora the Cat and…" Miki paused there.

"Miki?"

"I completely forgot!" Miki said as she got up and got off the ledge. Sonic followed her. "I can't believe I forgot about her! Ugh, I'm such an idiot!"

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked, but Miki ignored it.

"Get me to the workshop right now!"

"Okay." Sonic picked her up and put her on his back. He then ran straight towards the workshop that was close by.

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><p>AN: For those of you who don't know what Ki energy is, it's the life force of a person or living thing(including plants). Look it up and then you would understand it. Had to do research just for this.

Anyways, next time on Gathering of the Seven, Shadow the Hedgehog enters the scene and helps Sonic and Miki find the rest of the Chaos Emeralds.

**Chapter Three- A World Tour**

See ya' then! *Peace*


	4. World Tour

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's. If .a persons dialogue is slanted and is in quote, _"Like this."_, then that person is speaking telepathicly. Only the spirits of the seven Chaos Emeralds are able to do it when inside their emerald.

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><p><strong>Chapter Three- A World Tour<strong>

After getting into the workshop, Miki immedietly went straight for a machine that was used to store and analyse a Chaos Emeralds status. Tails built it after Nazo was defeated years ago so that way he'll know when something like that would happen again. After putting it in a slot, Miki activated the machine and viewed the emeralds status. She sighed in relief that there was nothing strange with the emerald except that it was gaining back it's full power. "This is a good sign." Miki said to herself as she turned off the machine and took out the emerald.

"You still haven't told me what's going on." Sonic said as he walked towards Miki. "So who's this Aurora person?"

_"I'm the spirit that resides in this emerald."_ Aurora's voice said, but wasn't physically there in the room.

Sonic and Miki looked around trying to find where the voice was coming from. Suddenly, the Chaos Emerald floated out of Miki's hand and circled over the hedgehog's heads. "How the heck are you doing that?" Sonic asked, not really shocked considering he has experienced weird stuff in his life."

_"It's one of the abilites that we have once we have taken shelter in our emerald."_

"We? You mean that there is more of you?" Miki asked.

_"Yes, but we have to find them quick before Raze is fully recovered."_

"Who's this 'Raze' character?" A new voice asked.

They turned, save for the Chaos Emerald, and saw a familiar ebony hedgehog. "Hey Shadow, how's it going these days?" Sonic greeted, but it was clear that Shadow ignored the question as he walked right past the cobalt.

_"I will explain that when we recovered all the others and bring them to a safe place. If those creatures knew the location of this place, then it is clear that we must act quickly before all locations are opened to them."_ Aurora answered, making Shadow suspicious.

Miki rushed over to a computer screen and showed the world map. She pressed a red button and six dots appeared in different colors. The green was in the location of Green Hill Zone, the cyan was in Ice Cap, the blue was in the area of the Bermuda Triangle, the silver was in the Amazon along with the red, and the purple was on Angel Island. Upon seeing where the emeralds were, Sonic felt his phobia tingle, Shadow felt hunger for battle, Miki was thinking and, inside the emerald, Aurora felt a bit scared.

"Okay, we might as well split up in order to find them quickly." Miki said to the other hedgehogs and the emerald. She then turned towards. "You might having to take Aurora with you since you can't be able to sense Chaos Energy like me and Shadow."

_"That's good enough for me."_ Aurora said as the emerald floated down to Sonic.

"I'll be heading for Ice Cap." Shadow said before he walked towards the door.

"Hold it Shadow, what if Nazo is there?" Sonic asked.

"You still believe that there is a chance that he could be alive?" Shadow questioned after stopping.

"He was from that emerald when he was first released and it took both of us fused together with Chaos Control in our Hyper Forms just to finish him off, not to mention we barely won that fight. I don't for sure how powerful he can be at this point so you have to watch out for yourself in there."

There was an akward silence in the room, especially between the two look-a-like hedgehogs. After a minute, Shadow disappeared, most likely due to his short distance Chaos Control. Miki felt irritation coming from Aurora's emerald. _"What is up with that hedgehog and his attitude? I mean really, he should show some respect to his friends."_

"That's just Shadow for ya'." Miki said to the emerald. "Anyways, we should head to our locations. I'm going to be heading to the Bermuda Triangle to the blue emerald. It seems that the emerald is in better shape than the others for some reason but it's somehow keeping the wters there calm."

"We'll head over to Green Hill Zone. I'm not exactly worried of Knuckles having the purple emerald so we should keep that out of the way for now." Sonic said as Aurora's Chaos Emerald floated towards him. "Lets meet back here and head for Ice Cap to help out Shadow."

"Okay."

With that, the two left workshop and headed for different directions. Sonic ran back north, but slower than his usual speed just in case those dark creatures were still about. Miki had teleported to some ledges a few yards away and ran to the direction of the ocean.

However, neither of them noticed that three pairs of eyes were watching them in the shadows: One reptillian, one dark blue, and one red. Each of them had a voice in there head saying, "Each of you will go after one. Make sure that you get rid of the pests and get the emeralds. Especially the Cyan Emerald and the Blue Emerald."

"Yes Master Raze." The three said in unison. They then split up, one following Sonic and Aurora, one following Miki, and the other obviously evaporing into the shadows so it can teleport to Ice Cap.

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><p>Ending the chapter here because it is here that it will divide into three parts,one for Sonic, one for Shadow and one for Miki, in that order. Also, don't expect the next chapter for a week because I'm going on a trip, but I will be writing the next chapter during that trip.<p>

Until then, TBC.


	5. A New Fusion

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's. If .a persons dialogue is slanted and is in quote, _"Like this."_, then that person is speaking telepathicly. Only the spirits of the seven Chaos Emeralds are able to do it when inside their emerald.

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><p><strong>Chapter Four- A New Fusion<strong>

After passing Station Square and bumping into Tails, Sonic and Aurora arrived in Green Hill Zone. They stopped at a nearby stream and decided to stretch their legs. Aurora made her physical appearance, surprising Sonic a bit, and looked in the stream. She saw tiny fish swimming in small groups as they traveled the currant while Sonic was bending his knees.

"So," Sonic started, trying to start a conversation. "If there's a spirit in every emerald, then who are we suppose be looking for?"

"We are looking for a green fox by the name Jade." Aurora said without looking up. "This is the perfect environment for him when he has to rest a bit and has to stay out of trouble. He has this ability to camouflage in green areas like this and can manipulate the plants and earth using his elemental Chaos Energy."

"So then you guys don't have the same Chaos Energy?"

"Exactly, he has Plant and Earth Chaos Energy while I have Lightning Chaos Energy, so I have an advantage above everyone else, including the elder spirit River, who Miki is in pursuit of in the Bermuda Triangle."

"So do you have an advantage above Nazo as well?"

With that, there was a eerie wind blowing as there was a silence between the two, as if the question disturbed the area around them. Aurora looked up from the stream was looking deep into the forest. After a few moments, the yellow she-cat faced Sonic. "We'll explain later when we find everyone. Right now, our main goal is to find Jade and get out of here before one of Raze's creatures finds us."

Aurora then headed in a direction with great haste, leaving Sonic in confusion. _She doesn't even want to be on a subject about Nazo. Guess when he tried to destroy the Earth, it hit her hard. Better go after her before I lose her. _Sonic ran after Aurora, not realizing the danger that's following him.

Sonic then found Aurora standing on top of a cliff, staring down at the open land below them. There was nothing but grass and rocks, but Aurora was looking at one spot that has Sonic thinking. Suddenly, the grass was bending down in a footstep by an invisible force that only Aurora could see.

"Hey Jade!" Aurora shouted, stopping the force in its tracks. "Stop hiding and come out so we can see ya'!"

Nothing happened, making Aurora very irritated enough that she was gathering her energy. Sonic knew by the sparks flying off of her fur. He took a step back as all of that electricity traveled to her left hand. It formed into a single electric spear that was used for a Chaos Spear attack. Aurora tossed that spear to the area and it made contact with the force, causing an explosion that sent dirt into the air and causing Sonic to fall backwards.

After everything was calmed down a bit, Sonic could see a fox like figure with his arms in an X, protecting himself from Aurora's attack. After the dirt was cleared, it revealed a emerald fox, jade eyes, and plant-like clothing. His arms was covered in electricity, due to protecting himself from getting any major damage from Aurora's attack. After setting his arms down, the fox looked directly at Sonic and Aurora, looking very angry at the yellow feline.

"For the love of Chaos and the Heavens above, what the heck was that for!" The fox shouted as tiny rock spikes were popping up from the ground in a circle around him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Aurora asked as she jumped down from the cliff, landing perfectly on her feet and sent a single wave of electrical energy. It was very clear that she meant business. She walked over as she was yelling, "Everything in the universe is in the balance now, and you decide to go invisible when we need you to help fight against Raze. Some protector you turned out to be."

"Hey, speak for yourself. You had to go to a mere mortal for help finding me and sent other mortals to find the other protectors." Jade said back.

"For your information, I have no choice but to in my current state right now thanks to Raze, and I would really appreciate that you get along with mortals. It's not everyday that we get a chance to walk this world."

"That still doesn't change the fact that _I_ don't work well with mortals like that hedgehog over there." Jade pointed to Sonic, who just jumped off the cliff, but stayed where he landed.

"Well you're gonna have to because he's exactly what we need to defeat Raze once and for all."

"And how exactly do you know that?"

"I'm not the only who knows that, the other protectors knows that because we all know that this mortal is pure of heart and can fight against any enemy. Also, he is one of those few mortals that can be able unlock the Chaos Emeralds and turn them into Super Emeralds."

"Listen to me and listen to me good, Aurora, I _will not_ help out because of just one little mortal."

"Are you forgetting that if we don't defeat Raze within two months, then we will cease to exist until there is a new…Don't you sense that?" Aurora suddenly asked calmly.

Jade sensed it to, but he looked around to see where the energy was coming from. Sonic was confused as to what was going on, but he knew that trouble was close. He walked over to the protectors, but he stopped half way there when the sky grew dark. Following the strange phenomena was an eerie wind that blew softly, sending chills down every-one's spine.

Everyone turned to where the wind was blowing, which was from the cliff, and saw a mini tornado from where Sonic stood. The tornado was about the size of Jade, if not a few centimeters taller, and was swirling with not clouds, but blackish-purple smoke. It faded away, and in its place was a brownish fox with faded red eyes, a scar in shape of an 'x' on its forehead, red tipped ears, and wore red and black warriors clothing with a white X across the chest. On his cuffs were small, black marbles with a single green dot on every single one of them, and on his left side of the clothing was a long, black sword and on his right was a dagger.

The protectors grew tense, but Sonic just stood there and stared at the fox. The fox stared back, but he was just as tense as the two protectors as he sensed the energy coming off of the blue hedgehog. He shook it off and jumped down, making Aurora and Jade back up a bit, but made Sonic more confused.

"So this is the speedster hedgehog that I heard about." The fox said in a deep, shadowy voice. "This is probably going to be the most interesting fight that I had in quite a long time."

Before the two could do anything, a void surrounded the four of them and it was giving off dark energy that felt familiar to Sonic. It was pure dark, Sonic gathered energy to his sky blue aura to brighten some of the area. Looked around to see where Aurora and Jade was, but found their emeralds as they were glowing to help Sonic see. The blue hedgehog got them, but as he did he felt a presence behind him. He turned and was sent flying by a single kick in the gut.

Sonic landed on his back, but he got onto his feet just in time to see a punch come at him. He caught it and tossed the fox a good few feet away. Sonic didn't know what happened to the fox, but he sensed something at his feet. He looked down and saw the tiny stones that popped up when Aurora tossed the lightning bolt at Jade.

_"Listen to me Sonic."_ Jade's voice said through the Chaos Emerald as it floated out of Sonics' quills and close to his face. _"You are facing against a powerful Shadow that is Raze's third strongest warrior. You're going to need my help in order to defeat him with my power."_

"But how am I going to do that? I can't transform into my Super Form without all seven Chaos Emeralds." Sonic explained.

Suddenly, something exploded right in his face and sent him and the emerald flying a good five to six yards. Sonic landed hard on his back as Jade's emerald landed next to his right side. He tried to get up, but a foot stopped him by landed hard on his chest. Sonic managed to look and saw the fox on top of him.

"Sorry if my bombs hurt, but you left me with no choice. Now, it's a real shame that we didn't get to know each other well enough but alas, my job must get done before Master Raze expects me back." The fox pulled out his sword and held in a stabbing position.

Sonic wanted to get out from under the fox, but the explosion of the bomb caused his body to go numb with shock. He never lost a battle, if none at all, this quickly and he was really going to regret underestimating his opponent, especially this one.

Luckily, Jade had other ideas and his emerald glowed brightly. See the bright light and being to much of a shadow to withstand it, he backed off of Sonic and covered his eyes. Next thing he saw after his vision was normal again was that he was in a circle of large, thick boulders. He didn't want to risk using one of his marble bombs so he put his sword away and took out his dagger(which is sharp enough to go through a bone), and started slashing at the rock.

Sonic took in a huge breath of oxygen once the fox was off his feet, but he was still numb from the bomb. He saw that Jade appeared, but he was faint, must be because of this strange void. The green fox had his hands on Sonics chest and was giving off a healing like energy. Suddenly, Sonic didn't feel numb so he was able to sit up. "Thanks."

"Not just yet Sonic, we still have to defeat this fox." Jade said as he turned towards the bolder. "That barrier isn't going to hold out much longer, so you need to fuse with me fast."

"But how? Last time I fused with someone was with Shadow and we had to use our Hyper Forms to do it with Chaos Control."

"However, fusing with all seven Chaos Emeralds is an ancient art and takes the right persons to do it. You, my friend, have established that heritage through your friendship with Knuckles and I believe that you can use that heritage to fuse with a single emerald."

This shocked Sonic so far that he was beyond speechless. He understood what the pro-tector was saying, and now he felt proud that he had become friends with Knuckles. If it wasn't for meeting the echidna, then he wouldn't have all of these adventures with him, Tails, Amy and Shadow and the others. "Then tell what I have to do." Sonic said as he jumped to his feet.

"Alright, I have little time to explain this but hold onto the emerald and let me do my thing."

"Got it."

Jade was then replaced by the Chaos Emerald and Sonic held onto it. He felt Jade's energy in his hands, but he also felt so much energy in the emerald that he has not felt before.

_"The servers, are the Seven Chaos."_ Jade started with the chant that Knuckles uses to call onto the Master Emerald._ "I, Jade the Fox, Protector of the Plant and Earth Element, call onto the Great Emerald and let it hear my plea. Let me fuse with this being to put a halt to this creature of evil and bring peace to this land for the time being."_

At once when Jade finished, the fox that was trapped in a circle of boulders broke out with one final slash. He charged for Sonic, but Sonic was wrapped in a green and blue light. Aurora's emerald floated away as Sonic and Jade's emerald was engulfed in a sea green color light. The fox stopped in his tracks at the blinding light. He covered his eyes due to the light, but this time around it wasn't as bright.

After a minuet, the light disappeared and the fox looked at where Sonic stood, only he didn't see the blue hedgehog. The fox saw a sea green hedgehog with more of a blue color, one eye jade green the other emerald, had light green tipped ears, and was wearing Jade's clothing, only more warrior like, and the Chaos Emerald was attached to the chest. From a safe distance, Aurora stood confused and amazed at the figure that stood in place of Sonic.

_Amazing, Jade must've realized the situation and decided to swallow his pride to help a mortal with incredible power. It is shocking what people can do to help each other out, whether they are mortals or not. _Aurora thought.

"Who are you? And what happened to that blue hedgehog." The fox asked as pointed his dagger at the figure in front of him.

"I'm still here." Sonic said, but with a hint of Jade's voice as well. "Just took in a new power form you could say."

"I don't care what form you take, your life is still sealed as long as I'm around." With that, the fox charged at his opponent with the dagger in stabbing position. He struck down when he was close to the hedgehog, but realized that he missed when he didn't see the body below him. "Did I miss?"

"No, you're just slow." A voice said from behind him. The fox turned, only to be sent away by a powerful kick. He was close to the ground, he was suddenly sent straight up by a single sprout of a thick tree. After a good fifteen feet into the air, the fox was suddenly wrapped in a vine and was brought to the ground within a flash.

The fox was in pain, but he was struggling to free himself from the vine. He was able to cut it open, but when he got up, he was face to face with Sonic. In surprise, the fox then jumped a few feet away. A familiar, eerie wind started to blow gently as the fox was surrounded by swirling black mist.

"You may have won this round of combat, my friend, but be warned that when I return, you will be facing me and the other two warriors that Raze sent to follow your friends. That girl may have been defeated and taken to Raze himself by now. Until then."

With that, the fox disappeared as well as the void, revealing the twilight sky. Sonic turned into a sea green light and once it disappeared, he was back to his normal form and so was Jade(his physical form in his case). Sonic felt weak and say down, breathing heavily. Jade was exhausted as well, more than he was before the hedgehog and Aurora rushed over.

"Are you two alright?" She asked with concern.

"I'm alright. Don't know about Jade though." Sonic said.

_"I'm fine, just used a lot more energy than I had in quite a few thousand years."_ _Jade_ ensured them. _ "But I'm more concerned for the girl that mongrel mentioned about. If she was taken to Raze, then she is at risk of loosing years of her life due to the environ-ment. I suggest that we act quickly before we are too late to save her, especially if she is against the strongest warrior that Raze has."_

"I'm not exactly one hundred percent sure that's going to happen, but it won't anytime soon." Sonic said. "I have known Miki since she was a kid and she has a special way of using her energy as attacks despite not having Chaos Energy without an emerald.

"Still, we have to make sure that she's safe. It took you two to fuse together just to defeat that fox." Aurora said.

There was a moment of silence, but it was broken by a wave that contained an inhuman scream. Sonic and Aurora had to cover their ears to prevent themselves from going deaf. The wave traveled away, but there was a wave of green energy going across the ground followed by a beam going into the sky a very wide distance away. The energy felt so familiar to Sonic and he recognized the beam as well.

"Looks like that's our cue." Sonic said. He grabbed Jade's emerald and Aurora placed her hand on Sonic's shoulder.

"We'll get there faster if we do it my way." Aurora said as she focused on finding Miki's energy. Once she found it, she also found a different energy and something more powerful than Miki's. "Chaos Control."


	6. Fire and Ice

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's. If .a persons dialogue is slanted and is in quote, _"Like this."_, then that person is speaking telepathicly. Only the spirits of the seven Chaos Emeralds are able to do it when inside their emerald.

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><p><strong>Chapter Five- Fire and Ice<strong>

Shadow appeared in the snowy zone of Ice Cap. There was no sun in the sky for it was blocked by clouds as the area was having a heavy blizzard. The snow reached up to Shadow's knees and the falling snow made it hard to see. Luckily, the weather nor temp-erature didn't effect his ability to sense Chaos Energy from a distance. He started walking in a direction that he sensed the energy coming from, but found in slightly difficult to walk in knee deep snow. _This better be worth it._ Shadow thought.

It took him about fifteen minuets before he found himself on top of the energy. He looked around, expecting to see either the emerald or Nazo, but didn't find neither of the two. He moved his feet a little until he was suddenly about to lose his balance. He reacted quickly and moved his foot away from the ice patch, but was curious as to why there was a ice patch underneath the snow. Following his hunch and instincts, the ebony hedgehog slowly walked onto the ice patch without slipping and slammed his foot against it, making it break.

He fell straight through, but landed on feet perfectly fine ten feet below ground level. However, a pile of snow that fell as well landed on top of him. Shadow jumped out of the snow and landed on the stone floor of a cavern that had icicles all around on the ceiling. On the ground were ice crystals and there were ledges along the walls. He then decided to walk down a one way hallway, but stopped when he heard a noise.

First off, it sounded like a dog or wolf, second it sounded like it was being attacked by something because it was howling for help. Shadow sensed two familiar energies coming from down the hallway, one negative Chaos Energy, but he also sensed his own energy. Shadow figured out the negative energy, but he was shocked as he knew right away what his energy was doing down there. _I thought that he was long gone._ Shadow thought as he ran towards the two energies.

He reached the end of the hallway, only to be almost blasted by a dark fire ball. The flames were steamed away due to contact with the ice, and once the steam was cleared, Shadow could see the battle very clearly. Inside the cavern was a hedgehog similar to Shadow, only with white markings, hover shoes and silver rings. Charging at the hedgehog was a (not humanoid) brownish-red wolf with green eyes and had silver blue linings along the legs and feet. Shadow knew that the hedgehog was Mephiles the Dark, but Shadow could sense negative Chaos Energy coming from the wolf.

Mephiles moved out of the way of the wolf and started to form a purple electric orb in his left hand and tossed it towards the wolf. The wolf bent down like he was going to pounce and jumped high over the attack. He aimed his body down towards the hedgehog, but Mephiles gathered his energy to his right hand. "Chaos Lance!"

The dark hedgehog tossed the devastating towards the wolf, hitting the animal in the chest. However; the attack didn't go through the wolf so it would be killed, to but it did sent him the cavern walls. He fell to the ground, landing hard on his side, but he got up onto his four paws and was growling furiously at Mephiles.

"So this is what I'm suppose to be watching out for?" Mephiles taunted. "I have done blow after blow on you and yet you still haven't got a chance to do any damage to me. What a pathetic excuse for someone like you, mongrel."

The wolf barked at him, but only Shadow was able to hear it in his head. _Do you have any idea on who you're dealing with here?_

Mephiles only laughed at the bark as he was gathering energy. "Still, it won't matter once I finish you off and then Raze won't have to deal with a traitor."

"Not on my watch, Mephiles!" Shadow shouted as he formed his Chaos Spear. Mephiles turned, but it was too late for him as he was sent flying across the cavern in contact with the attack. The wolf was very surprised at this act, but didn't move or made a sound.

Mephiles caught himself and flipped over. Once landing safely on the ground, he turned to see Shadow a few yards away. "Well now, this is a surprise. I was only told to kill that wolf over there, but I think I'll make a two for one."

"Don't flatter yourself, Mephiles. _You_ could be the one getting killed." Shadow warned.

"Have you forgotten that I'm your shadow and that I have the same Chaos Energy as you do? You can't be able to kill me nor defeat me now that I'm more stronger than I was before."

"On what account may I ask? Last time I checked, you're still a coward and there is nothing that can change it."

Suddenly, the environment around them began to change as the temperature started to rise, making the icicles above start dripping water drops. The snow was starting to turn to slush, and even the wolf was effected by this as well for he was panting slightly. Shadow found this sudden change unusual, but he could sense a new kind of energy coming from Mephiles. Shadow backed up as he saw flames surrounding Mephiles and he felt like there was no end to this energy.

"After you last defeated me, I was trapped in never ending darkness, a universe that defies the laws of time and space. Then I was freed just recently due to the help of a hedgehog by the name of Raze. He then gave me something that I have been wanting for a very long time: Iblis' flames."

At the name 'Raze', the wolf ran over to Shadow and then headed straight for Mephiles. The wolf suddenly stopped when a wall of fire appeared between him and the hedgehog. Shadow could see a pair of reptilian green eyes and started to have a weird feeling. He heard cracking so he looked up and saw the icicles starting to break. He noticed that the wolf was feeling very uneasy as he was growling at the fire. Suddenly, a Chaos Lance was shot at the wolf and sent it flying towards Shadow. At the same time, the icicles came tumbling down and was about to hit Shadow when the wolf bumped into the hedgehog and the two were sent crashing into the wall.

Before anything else could happen, Shadow and the wolf were found in a ring of fire (pun not intended if it was one). Shadow never felt this cornered in his life, let alone being surrounded by such intense heat like this. He noticed that the wolf was growling at the flames, seeing the green eyes of Iblis. He was also shaking, either by shock or by fear. Shadow knew that the wolf was Nazo, but he never saw Nazo in a state or form like this. He also felt sympathetic towards his former enemy.

Nazo turned to look at Shadow and barked. Shadow heard Nazo's voice in his head. _Listen to me and listen to me good 'cause I'm only going to explain this once. In order for us the got and get the emerald is for us to work as a team. I know you're not going to like this, but neither am I, but it's the only. I'm going to need your help because I'm in a state that I can't be able to use most of my attacks._

"Yeah, I'm starting to get that feeling as well." Shadow said as he felt that his energy was getting weaker. "So if you have a plan, then now is the time to use it."

Nazo nodded and started to back up a bit. He then charged towards the fire, but he jumped as high as he could over the flame. Either by Mephiles' command or by itself, the fire formed a claw and headed straight for the wolf. However; Nazo spit an ice sphere at the fire claw. Once it made contact, the fire started hissing as the ice melted into water and weakened the fire. Even the rest of the fire that surrounded Shadow started to get weaker.

Once the fire was lowered enough, Shadow made his way through as Nazo landed perfectly on his feet and the duo headed straight for Mephiles. The dark hedgehog formed purple orbs in his two hands and tossed them at the two, while making more and repeating the process. Shadow did his Chaos Spear attack and they made contact with the orbs while what was left, Nazo jumped on top until he was high enough in the air. He gathered energy and spit an ice orb towards Mephiles. The dark hedgehog didn't see this coming so when the ice orb hit, he was sent flying.

Shadow gathered the energy he had left and started to glow in a red aura. Nazo landed on his feet and saw this, knowing what was going to happen next so he hid behind a solid rock. "Chaos Blast!" Shadow released his strongest attack. It spread across the cavern and Mephiles was caught in it. All of the snow was blown away and all of the ice shattered into little crystals. The rock that Nazo was behind crumbled and the wolf was sent flying.

Once the attack was done, Shadow looked around to see where Mephiles was. He found him on the ground, trying to get up. Shadow walked over just in time to see his shadow counterpart stand up. "It's done Mephiles." Shadow said. Even with Iblis you were still unable to beat me."

Mephiles didn't say anything at first, but he then he started to chuckle and then into a laugh that Shadow nor Nazo, who was getting up from where he was, didn't like. "This is just a mere exercise, Shadow. You may have weakened me now but next time, you won't be having help from that Chaos Remnant over there. Soon, Raze will have all the power he needs and everything will be set to his liking, especially now." With that, Mephiles disappeared into black smoke.

Shadow collapsed down to his knees in exhaustion and was glad it was over. Nazo walk-ed over to Shadow and nudge his head against the hedgehog's shoulder. "Don't get started with that." Shadow said as he pushed Nazo away.

_Well, don't expect me to save your butt again in a while._ Nazo barked and walked over to a ledge. He jumped onto it and saw that there was a small, black crystal embedded into the cavern wall that somehow survived the attack. Inside the crystal was the Cyan Chaos Emerald. He then bit the crystal as hard as he could, making it crack. Nazo bit into it again, this time actually opening and grabbing the emerald in his mouth. He transformed into in a black light and began to change form. Once the light disappeared, his was in his first form, a cyan hedgehog with green eyes, five quills standing on end, 'v' shaped spikes and red and blue shoes. He inhaled a deep breath, and sighed as he felt re-energized. "That's so much better." He said as he held onto the emerald tightly.

He jumped off the ledge and turned to face Shadow, who was only a few feet away. The ebony hedgehog was shocked at the appearance as he noticed that Nazo grew and that his fur was lighter since their last encounter. But, he still had the same eyes, menacing and full of evil. "So what happens from here on?" Shadow asked.

"I'm going to have to have a rematch with you and Sonic at some point." Nazo started as he walked up Shadow. He stopped two and a half feet away. "But for now, I think that it would be best if put aside our differences for now and focus on finding the rest of the emeralds."

"My guess is that Sonic found the Green Chaos Emerald by now, but I doubt that he had an easier time that I did."

"That may be true considering Raze sent Mephiles to hunt me down. He must've sent his two other warriors in pursuit of the Emeralds. I'm hoping that Raze himself hasn't found one of them or it would mean deep trouble for all of us."

"I just hope that one of the other two doesn't find Miki in the Bermuda." Shadow said. Curiosity perked Nazo as his ears began twitching, perking Shadow's curiosity. "What is it?"

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what? All I'm hearing is the blizzard outside."

"Just listen, you'll hear it in a second."

Following Nazo's hunch, Shadow focused on his hearing. He heard what was left of the icicles on the ceiling fall, he heard the blizzard, but he also heard something faint. It was soft, but Shadow could hear a silent scream. It was female, but he couldn't make out the who the person was. Just then, a continuous wave of green energy appeared on the ceiling and Shadow recognized it right away. Following instincts, Shadow ran to the hallway that came to the cavern. Confused, Nazo followed the other hedgehog.

"Did you recognized that energy?"

"Yeah, and if it reached up here then that means the Miki is in deep trouble from something." The two reached the cavern and jumped through the hole Shadow came through. Once they were outside, Nazo felt more energy and looked to where the wave of energy was coming from.

"Where did you say your friend was exactly?"

"She's in the Bermuda Triangle. I'm guessing that one of the warriors found her and is more powerful than she thought."

Nazo grabbed Shadow by the wrist and the two stopped. "It would be a lot easier if we get there by using Chaos Control." Shadow nodded at the statement. The two then gathered their Chaos Energy and teleported to the Bermuda Triangle.


	7. Rough Waters

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's. If .a persons dialogue is slanted and is in quote, _"Like this."_, then that person is speaking telepathicly. Only the spirits of the seven Chaos Emeralds are able to do it when inside their emerald.

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><p><strong>Chapter Six- Rough Waters; A Major Loss, A Major Success<strong>

Miki came to a beach east of Mystic Ruins and noticed that there were dark clouds out on the horizon. "Looks like there's a storm out there." She said to herself. She looked at the sky and noticed that the sun was beginning to set a bit. "Okay, time to get going." She then powered up and started flying towards the dark clouds.

Once half an hour past, Miki stopped where she was and noticed that the waters were starting to get a little rough. She looked ahead and saw that she was only ten miles from the clouds. She took a big breath and dived underwater. She swam as fast as she could to the area where the clouds were and she is a very fast swimmer, going at least the speed of an average speedboat and a speedboat is fast. She sensed the Chaos Emeralds energy a mile and a quarter up ahead, but there was also a different energy close by and it was overpowering Miki.

She stopped and looked around franticly trying to find where the energy was, but she felt it above her. She looked up and saw a shadowy figure come straight at her with a sharp shadow claw. She immediately got scared due to the power she was sensing and swam towards the emeralds energy while avoiding the sharp claw. She looked behind her and saw the figure swimming at a speed faster than hers and had the claw stretched out.

Panic was all Miki could think as she moved out of the way by swimming to the surface. Once she did, she immediately flew into the dark sky as she was in the location of the dark clouds. The figure jumped out of the water and flew to the sky, at almost the same height as Miki and was twenty feet away from the hedgehog. Miki could now see that the figure was a black (humanoid) wolf with purple streaks along the arms and legs, had red eyes, and was wrapped in a large purple cloth, revealing her right eye and arm.

The waves below started to get rougher as lightning struck down, but it didn't affect the two. Miki looked at the wolf and noticed some female touches to the body, but she wasn't too sure if it was either a boy or girl until the wolf spoke. "Who are you? And why do I sense great power in you?" Miki shouted over the rolling thunder.

"How I got my power is none of your importance as of now." The wolf shouted back, the wolf was female. "But, I will leave you my name for I know that you will be surviving this fight. My name is Yami Yamota the Wolf, strongest among the Shadow Army controlled by my leader of the Dark Clan, Master Raze."

Among the name Raze, more lightning strikes appeared as the water were getting rougher. Miki also sensed a great evil power originating from Yami that it was over coming her light Ki energy. She can feel an ominous wind blowing from the wolf's side, a dark wind that brought chills down the hedgehog's spine.

"Now, I think that it's time that I find the Chaos Emerald for my master before you can get your hands on it."

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

Lightning struck and thunder rolled, then it started to rain. The water below was started to create big waves that almost reached the bottom of their feet. Miki then started to glow in a bright yellow aura while Yami glowed in a black and purple aura, the two signaled each other that they were preparing to fight. All of Miki's aura traveled down to her right hand and created a two handed, gold sword with a silver blade. Yami's aura traveled to her right hand as well and created a single black spear with a purple rock shard ant the end.

With their weapons held for battle, the two charged at each other. After a boom due to their weapons colliding, they were sent back a few feet but Miki quickly caught herself in midflight and headed straight for Yami with her sword glowing as the hedgehog traveled her Ki energy to the sword. She struck down, but her attacked was blocked by Yami's spear as the wolf lifted it. Upon doing so, she felt a shock in her hand and backed off.

"What in Raze's name was that?" Yami asked

"That was my Ki energy you got shocked with." Miki answered and held out her sword. "You see, I specialize in the spiritual field and in energy. I sent some of Ki to my sword and it went right through you dark spear, possibly giving you a shock due to my light Ki."

_This girl is different from all of the other enemies I have faced. Perhaps this will be an interesting fight after all._ Yami thought. She shook off the shock and prepared herself as Miki raised her sword.

The hedgehog charged at the wolf with her sword again glowing but when she struck down, the wolf dodged it by moving to the side. Yami the smacked her spear against Miki's shoulder blades and the white hedgehog was sent flying. She kept flipping over when she suddenly had an idea pop into her head. The sword disappeared and she did her own Spin Dash attack that Sonic taught and headed back for Yami.

The black wolf prepared herself and held her spear infront of her, protecting her as Miki made contact. The white hedghog didn't bounce off the spear, but instead tried to break the spear. Eventually, Yami pushed the hedgehog away and focused some energy into her spear. Miki got out of her Spin Dash and was in time to see a black arrow come at her.

She moved out of the way, but noticed that the black wolf was covered in a dark aura as the spear disappeared. Yami was chanting something, but Miki couldn't tell what it was because it was in a language she was not aware of. Suddenly, the a water pillar shot up in front of Miki and the white hedgehog saw a pair of reptilian purple eyes in the water. The water dropped to reveal a black sea dragon with long whiskers and big fins sticking out of its face. On its head was a symbol marked in dark gray aura and Miki felt a vibe as she felt the symbol was familiar.

However, the hedgehog didn't have time to think about that as one of the whiskers wrapped around her arms and waist, making her unable to move at all. The sea dragon then tossed Miki to the ocean with a great thrust and she was going so fast that she couldn't even stop herself. She was left with one option and it was the one option she was forced to use.

She took in a deep breath and hold it for one minuet. She then let out a inhuman scream and it was sent in a wave. The wolf had to cover her ears really tight because of how high Miki's scream was, but the sea dragon was sent back a few feet away. Once Miki hit the water, a wave of continuios energy was sent in all directions on sea level, and it even reached land. She tried to swim for the surface of the ocean, but the waves were preventing her to do so.

Because of her "call for help", she was lacking air and since she was in the water, she was beginning to black out. After a good portion of a minuet, Miki blacked out completely and sank to the ocean floor. However, she was still aware of her surroundings, so as she landed on the floor, she sensed energy around her and it was something familiar. She was then grabbed by something and was being pulled.

* * *

><p>Yami unplugged her ears once Miki was in the water and the sea dragon was back to its senses. "Glad she is done for now." She said to herself before turning to the sea dragon. "Find the Blue Chaos Emerald and make sure that you return it to Master Raze." The sea dragon nodded and dove into the water, doing as it was told by its summoner.<p>

Yami's ears twiched as she sensed something approaching fast. She heard footsteps on the water so she looked down and saw a humanoid orange cat in a strapless shirt with a bell in the center of the chest, a pair off faded jeans and white shoes and she had jade eyes. She jumped up and before the wolf could think, the cat kicked and sent Yami flying. Yami was about to catch herself when suddenly...

"Thundra!"

"Chaos Spear!"

Both attacks made contact with Yami and she was sent straight into the air. Yami flipped over and stopped herself from going any where. She turned and saw the orange she-cat with a yellow she-cat and a male azure hedgehog with the Green Chaos Emerald in his hand. "Well, this is amazing. I was only expecting to see only one protector, but three in the same place? This is simply going to be a joy for Master Raze. Right, Aurora?" Yami asked the yellow she-cat.

"Not as long as we have Sonic, Jade and Miki." Aurora said. Sonic turned to face the orange cat, who was looking around franticly trying to find someone.

"Mango, what are you doing here?" He asked.

The orange gave up searching and turned to Yami. "What have you done with Miki?" She asked, she was very worried and ticked off.

"That white hedgehog? She's down below, but I wouldn't want to risk swimming, cat."

Mango, who was apparently Miki's house pet and somehow transformed into a humanoid cat, was beyond ticked and was about to get at Yami's throat when the temperature dropped to below freezing within a heartbeat. The rain turned to snow and there were places where ice were starting to form on the surface. Suddenly, as if sensing something, Aurora and Mango turned to face one ice patch and saw three hedgehogs break through, on being knocked out. One hedgehog was ebony with red marks and eyes, gold rings and hover shoes while the other was almost identical to Sonic but with lighter fur, quills sticking up, green eyes, red and blue shoes, and was slightly taller than the ebony hedgehog.

The two landed perfectly on a ice patch nearby and it was thick enough for them to land on without breaking it. The two then placed the third gently on her back and turned to face the group hovering in the air feet above(Sonic is using the emerald to float in the air and we'll get into Mango later). Everyone in the group looked down and Aurora was happy to see them, Sonic and Mango were happy to see the ebony hedgehog but was confused on why the cyan hedgehog was here, Jade was hard to tell because he was inside his emerald, and Yami was no where near happy.

"Sorry we were late for the party you guys." Shadow said.

"We got delayed a little." Nazo added on. He then turned to Yami. "Why am I not surprised that you're here, Yamota."

"I was about to say the same for you, Nazo." Yami said as she lowered down to an ice patch below her. Aurora, Mango and Sonic did the same, but only to where Nazo, Shadow and the knocked out Miki was. Jade's emerald floated over and sat next to Miki. Jade's physical spirit form appeared and he focused on healling Miki. Her injuries were healed, but she wasn't waking up at all. "I'm guessing that Mephiles underestimated you when you were in your own wolf form."

Jade then turned to face Yami. "What in the world did you inject into this girl, Yami?" This confussed everyone except Yami, as she smiled very deviously.

"It wasn't what I injected, but what my sea dragon injected." Yami said.

"What sea dragon?" Aurora asked. Just then, the waves got calmer and the clouds cleared away, causing the snow to stop, but the temperature never did go back up. "Speaking of which, he probably found the Chaos Emerald and delivered it to Raze. I really do hope that you would take this warning. Anyone who comes in the way of Master Raze will end up just like your friend there, but in a much worse condition." She was refering to Miki, who still layed on her back. Yami then disappeared in a black mist and left a huge impact on the group.

After awhile of some introduction to Mango and some explaination from Nazo, the Sonic Heroes headed straight for Central City where Tails was waiting. Amy was there too, but she didn't tackle Sonic like she used to. However; she was freaking out over Miki. After a moment of explaining everything to the two, Miki was placed in bed for rest and was carefully watched over by Nazo and Mango, who returned to her cat form. Everything was not fine for the Sonic Heroes, but unfortunetly, it was in better terms for Raze...sort of.

* * *

><p>"Unacceptable!" A voice rang through the hallways of a dark castle(Told ya'). Inside a throne room, black crystals popped up and surrounded the fox that fought against Sonic and Mephiles. The two were knelt down a few feet away from a very angry hedgehog, who had his back turned to them. "Sora, I can understand that you were facing two people fused together but that still doesn't make the situation any better for you now. And you, Mephiles the Dark, I gave you the Flames of Disaster(Again, we'll get into it a later time) and you still were defeated by Shadow and Nazo in his wolf form." More crystals popped up from the ground, but this time more spread out in the throne room.<p>

"But, Master Raze, I never expected Shadow to be there. If he wasn't there, then Nazo would be right here in your control again." Mephiles objected. "If I had a little more of..."

"I don't want to hear any excuses from you two!" Raze shouted, rattling their ear drums. He then sensed someone just come into the room, but not through the front door. "Well, at least _someone_ got the job done right." Raze said more calmly as Yami walked up to him with the Blue Chaos Emerald in her hand. The crystals disappeared as Yami handed over the emerald to her leader.

"All is done for now, Master Raze." Yami said after kneeling down. "But, I'm afraid that the girl will wake within a few short days."

"It won't matter for now." Raze said as he walked over to a pedetal near by and it had the Purple Chaos Emerald. He then placed the emerald down and sat in the throne. "It won't be long before all seven Chaos Emeralds are mine and once the Guardian of the Master Emerald is dead, then the protectors will die as well and there will be no one to stop me from conquering the entire universe."

* * *

><p>AN: Finally got this done!

Two Chaos Emeralds are in the hands of Raze, three are with the Sonic Heroes, there are still two more to be found. But who will get them? Who is Yami and Sora, and why has Mephiles joined Raze? And will Miki be able to wake up before any more danger comes?

Find out next time.

This chapter is dedicated to Aaron the water mage, thank you for waiting patiently for this chapter to come out.


	8. Worrying

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's. Sorry, but there will be no major fights in this chapter till the end. However, to make up for that I have added some humor that I think will find very fitting for a change of pase. Anyways, enjoy.

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven: Worrying; Strange Happenings<strong>

It was only yestterday that everything was fine until the spirits of the emeralds showed up in the lives of Sonic Heroes. Aurora the Cat was out of energy when Mango and Miki found her, then there was the attack in Mystic Ruins that was close to the workshop. Later, three battles took place in the location of the three Chaos Emeralds that were there. Sonic and Aurora found Jade the Fox and one of Raze's warriors in Green Hill Zone, Shadow found Nazo the Hedgehog up in Ice Cap and encountered Mephiles the Dark, and Miki went to the Bermuda to find the Chaos Emerald there, but instead encountered Yami Yamota the Wolf, Raze's other broke out in those three locations. But only one was lost and now, Miki is paying the price for that loss.

It was around three in the morning when Mango walked into the bed room through a mini door. She was in her house cat form so she was walking on all four paws to the bed where Miki was sleeping in. On the ground in front of the bed was Nazo in his wolf form and sitting upward, looking directly at Miki's face, hoping to see any facial movement. Mango smelled sadness coming off of him so she walked up to his front paws and put hers on top of his. Nazo turned his head slightly so he could see Mango and Miki at the same time.

_What do you want?_ Nazo barked.

_You're worried about her, aren't you?_ Mango mewed softly.

Nazo changed into a black light and once it was gone, he appeared in his hedgehog form. Mango appeared in her humanoid form and the two were almost the same height, Nazo was taller. The two stared at each other for a minuet before Mango turned and walked to the window. She opened it up and sat there with her legs outside. Nazo walked over but stood next to the window, leaned against the wall with arms crossed, and looked at the orange she-cat. "I am a little worried about her, but that doesn't change the fact that I was born from the negative energies of the Chaos Emerald and that I'm the protector of the ice element."

"Still doesn't change the fact that you weren't there in time." Mango pointed out, shutting Nazo as guilt overwhelmed him. If he were to go back and change time slightly, then not only would Miki be okay and well, but they would have the Blue Chaos Emerald with them. "Nazo, sometimes things happen that we can't prevent from happening. You can't keep beating yourself only because of this. We were lucky enough that she wasn't in anymore pain than she was then when you and Shadow came and saved her."

"At least that was the good thing that came out of this mess." Nazo said, but he was still holding onto the guilt.

"As far as we know, Raze has one emerald (They do not know of the other emerald yet), we got a total of three and Knuckles has one with him. We just need to find the other two and try to get the one that Raze has so we can put a stop to him."

"We might as well wait until Miki is awake and well before we go after one of the other protectors. Do you know where the other emeralds are?"

"No. When we were in Mystic Ruins heading to Tails' workshop, Miki and I got attacked by dark creatures that looked like Chaos. Miki told me to hide somewhere and don't come out until the battle subsided. It did, but I saw three shadows hiding and stayed to listen to them so I don't know what Miki and Aurora talked about."

"Well this drag things out of our grasp." Nazo sighed.

"Yeah, but I'm a little concern on how things will turn out from here." Mango said as she turned to face the protector of Ice.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, where will you and the others live? Since you guys don't have a home or anything like that, you've got to live somewhere so you can stay healthy and prepare for an upcoming fight."

"True. We'll think of something tomarrow." Nazo said just before turning back into his wolf form. He then walked back over to the bed and layed down next to. Mango climbed back in the window and closed it. She changed back into her house cat form and jumped onto the bed, next to Miki's head. She stared down at her owner with sorrow in her eyes.

_Please wake up soon, Miki Hoshiko._ Mango thought to herself as she curled up into a ball next to her friend and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Morning came as the sun beamed down through the living room's windows, shining down on the couch. A very irritated groan could be heard from Shadow as he was awaken very rudely from the sunlight. He sat up and looked around to see where he was. He was in a average living room with a leather chair on the other side of the room, where the entrance to the kitchen was, he was on the couch that was a few feet away from the kitchen and was behind a brown wooden table. Across the table was a television set on a mini table that was turned off. He stayed in Miki's apartment the night before so he could hopefully see Miki awake today.<p>

On the chair was Sonic, still sleeping comfortably underneath a soft white blanket, probably one of Miki's so he could sleep well. Shadow looked around and saw that one of the guest rooms door was slightly opened. He knew that Amy and Tails stayed the night as well so they were probably in there, but he was wondering where Aurora and Jade was. He looked around the room until he saw two Chaos Emeralds on the window silt of the living room. The emeralds shined in the sunlight and Shadow sighed in relief, knowing that they didn't go anywhere last night. The Green Chaos Emerald started to hover above the carpet floor and Jade appeared in his physical form. The fox stretched his arms before making eye contact with the ebony hedgehog.

"Good morning, Shadow." Jade greeted.

"You too, Jade." Shadow said back.

The fox looked around the room, scanning to find something or someone. "Did anyone else wake up yet?"

"After what happened yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone else slept until this afternoon." Shadow got off the couch and was heading for the front door. "If anyone wonders where I am, tell them I'm doing my usual routine."

"You becareful out there, Raze probably sent his minions to find the other protectors and to find you." Jade warned, but Shadow apparently ignored him and left. "He reminds so much of Nazo."

"Who does?" A tired voice asked.

Jade turned and saw Nazo walk out of a door rubbing his eyes. His fur was sticking out in some places and the green fox knew that the hedgehog didn't sleep very well the night before. "Who else besides Shadow? I beginning to think that there might be a possibility of a personality swich going on here since yesterday."

"Yeah, you being one of them. You haven't been yourself since we got back."

"After what's going on now, you should understand that stuff like this could change a person so much." Jade then calmed down a bit. "Has she waken up yet?"

"I saw a slight twich, but other than that no. I don't that she'll be able to wake up for another few days at this rate unless she's a quick healler."

"Her physical damage is already cleared up, but what ever the sea dragon Yami summoned injected, it went through the skin and Miki didn't realize it."

They stopped when there was a loud yawn coming from the room. They all turned and saw Sonic out of the chair. He was stretching his legs and arms as he took in a big yawn. Once done, he turned to the two protectors. "Morning guys." The azure hedgehog greetedly happily.

_How the heck can he be that chearful after what happened yesterday?_ Nazo mentally asked.

"Morning Sonic." Jade greeted back. "Sleep well last night?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

Sonic then turned to Nazo and the two stared at each other. The atmosphere changed slightly, making Jade feel very uneasy. "I'll go check up on Miki." The fox said before walking into the room Nazo stepped out. The two still stared at each other and the atmosphere changed again, feeling as if the temperature dropped a few degrees.

"You haven't changed a bit over the past few years." Nazo said, breaking the silence. "I'm surprised that you don't have a child by now."

"Miki is like one to me and Amy." Sonic proclaimed. "Her father has been in the military for the past decade so when he was sent to an undercover mission, he left Miki with me since we're close friends."

"Have you two grown close? You and Amy, I mean."

"Yeah, she isn't as childish as she was in the past and she is learning self defense quickly. But, can you keep a secret from her?"

"Depends on what it is that you don't want to tell her."

"Okay," Sonic started after checking the guest room. Amy and Tails were still sleeping so Sonic took Nazo to the kitchen. "Over the past two or three years, we have been hanging out more and more but at some point I want to take her out."

"Keep going."

"After a few dates, and I'm really am going to wait until this whole thing is over with..." There was a slight pause and the two stayed in silence until Sonic took a deep breath. "I'm going to admit _it _to her."

"I knew it." Nazo sighed. "Look Sonic, I'm not the type of guy that doesn't get into _these_ kind of situations so don't expect me to keep this from her. However, I will keep it hidden best as possible."

"Great and one more thing." Sonic then whispered it to the former enemy. Nazo's eyes then widen in shock.

"No."

"If you do, you can gather the emeralds for yourself when this is all over and do what you want with them. I won't even stop you."

"Do you really think I'm going to fall for that? Besides, I don't even know if I'll be able to stay out of my emerald when this done with."

"Well, we're going to have to wait and see then, won't we?" Nazo let out a sigh of irritation and gave Sonic an angry glare. "Hey, you'll get used to it." And with that, Sonic left the kitchen, but stopped in the door way. "Oh, do you know where Shadow went?"

"Have no clue." Nazo said, still irritated at the speedy hedgehog.

"Oh, you sure are a lot of help." Sonic said sarcastically.

"Aw, are you two love birds having an argument?" A voice barged into the coversation.

"Love birds?" Nazo asked Aurora with a sweat drop. "How the hell do we look like love birds?"

The she-cat leaned against the door way of the kitchen and turned to face the two hedgehogs."Well, if you think about it, Sonic looks more on the femine side than manly so he looks so much like a tomboy." Aurora said, making the blue blur turn with red with anger, blush, or both. Nazo found this amusing and couldn't hold back a slight chuckle.

"Hey, I really would not be a girl thank you! Do you have any idea on how weird that would be for me and Amy?"

"And for you fellow readers that are very well enjoying this as well as I am, don't make any conversation like this go to a more awkward direction than it needs to be and get right back on track. These idiots have failed to do so and what ever you do, don't have this kind of conversation with your friends or you can get into a serious fight. Warning given, but I doubt you'll be taking this."

(A/N: Horray for breaking the fourth wall!^_^  
>Nazo: And don't expect me to do it again either.)<p>

"Oh, but how will it effect you and Nazo then? Or how about Shadow or Jade?" Aurora asked. Nazo was able to here this one.

"Okay, that went too far." Nazo sighed. "No matter what gender that hedgehog is or what he looks like, I don't care, he and I are enemies once we find the other protectors and seal Raze for good! Have I made myself clear?"

"It's clear to me." Aurora said, but then added, "that you care for him more than you realize."

Before the conversation went into more arguement and was about to broke out into a fight, the telephone on the kitchen wall rang. Sonic was the first to get since he was standing right next to and looked at the dial number. He recongized this and answered it. "Hello?"

While Sonic was on the phone, Aurora signalled Nazo into the living room to give the blue hedgehog some privacy. Once in, Nazo slapped the she-cat in the back of the head, causing her to get angry at the hedgehog. "What did you do that for?" She asked.

"You know why. For your information, I don't even like him as a friend so don't say anything other wise or I swear, say another word about and _I will _smash your emerald. Do I make. Myself. Clear?"

"Yes sir." Aurora said with a salute. Nazo's head hung, just like how they heard the phone hung up.

"Thank goodness he called or the coversation could've gotten worse." Sonic said as he walked out of the door and grabbed the protectors attention. "Shadow wants us in Station Square, ASAP."

"What for?" Nazo asked with curiosity.

"Uh, guys? What's up with the sky?" Aurora aske as she pointed to the window. The others saw turned and saw this weird as well.

* * *

><p>After walking out of the apartment and out of the building, Shadow just walked in a random direction, not really having a destination. A lot of things were on his mind, but the one thing that got him was Mephiles. <em>Just how the heck did he came back after Solaris' flames being blown out? It's not possible do so unless you do some summoning ritual or something like that. And how the heck did he obtain the flames of Iblis?<em> Shadow asked himself these questions. He then remembered what Mephiles said. "But then how did _Raze_ obtain Iblis and freed Mephiles? Then again, everything seems to come back to Raze and Nazo, Aurora nor Jade has even given out information about him other than that we have to seal him back using the Chaos Emeralds. Why won't they just tell us all about him so we can know what we're up against?"

Shadow then Chaos Controled to Station Square just for a change in scenere but he felt weird then. The enviocment began to change and it didn't feel right either. He then heard crackling noises and looked around to see where it was coming from. Just for precautionary, he took out a phone and typed in a number. After one beep, "Hello?"

"Sonic...first off, why the heck do you sound glad?"

"Nothing, what is it?"

"You need to get down here ASAP." Shadow then looked up at the sky and saw it change from the morning blue sky to a twilight orange. "Something's happening on my end and I can't seem to figure it out but I'm hearing crackling noises. It sounds like fire but if it is, then I would be seeing smoke by now."

"Alright, I gather Aurora and Nazo and come down to you."

"Thanks." Shadow then turned off the comunicator and as he did, he heard something crash. He turned to the origin of the sound and saw that a corner piece of a nearby building fell. Screams could be heard from the people nearby and Shadow knew why. Up on the roof of the building was a large pheonix like creature, but it was purple and was surrounded by black fire wisps. The bird was probably as tall as the building as it was, if not then a buidling and a quarter, and the building was huge. "Well, this is just lovely."

The pheonix then sent flapped its wings and caused little embers flying. It then flew into the sky and flapped its wings fast, causing gusts of wind and ember through the city. Shadow tried to hold his ground, but he went flying back quite a ways. He was the grabbed by the wrist and was pulled to the ground. He looked up and realized that it was Sonic and he holding onto at street light that was some how able to still stand. "Looks like this is going to be a tough on to beat!" Aurora shouted from behind.

"Really, I didn't think so!" Shadow shouted back as he looked back. But he only saw Aurora. _Where the hell is Nazo?_

* * *

><p>Okay, this took awhile to get done but here it is.<p> 


	9. Attack of the Black Pheonix

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's. I would like to thanks Aaron the water mage for helping me out with the story so thanks man. Lets get on with the story.

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><p><strong>Chapter Eight: Blazing City; Attack of the Black Pheonix<strong>

Inside the dark castle, large energy blasts could be heard even if you far from a large steel room. Mephiles formed a dark energy ball and tossed it at an injured blue fox. The fox tried to knock it away, but in contact, the ball exploded and sent him quite a ways back, close to the steel wall. Watching from a good distance was Raze, and he looked like he's about to lose whatever patience he has left. After one more of Mephiles' attack, River the Fox was sent directly into the wall and was trapped in there for a moment before collapsing to the ground. He didn't have any energy left to even get up so he just layed there. It was time.

"I think it would be a lot easier for both of us if you just tell me where Scorch is at least." Raze said as he walked over.

"I won't betray the other protectors by revealling their locations to you." River said as he forced himself to stand up. However, that was a bad idea for him. Raze grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the steel wall, blocking any air from getting in or out.

"You say that you won't betray your fellow comrades but you are willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of Nazo after what he did those many years ago." Raze whispered evily, sending chills down the old fox's spine. "I can see it in you, River. Tell me where Scorch is and we can do both end him. We can both end him together and I promise that you'll be even stronger than before." Raze's eyes then glowed, as if trying to take control of River. But the fox knew that and gathered some strength. He then kicked the hedgehog in the chest and sent him a few feet back as well as let the fox go.

"I will say it again, I _will not_ betray the other protectors. Even what Nazo did in the past is unforgivable, he is still a protector as well as my underling. I won't even let him join you again." River said. Raze stared at the fox with hatred and looked like he was going to send a devastating attack, but he held that urge back for now. Instead, he turned and walked towards the door.

Mephiles followed him and once out, he closed the door behind him. "So what do we do now?" Mephiles asked.

"For now, we focus on keeping our enemies distracted while we search for Scorch. We need him in order for you to return to your original state and defeat the Sonic Heroes easily." (Original State meaning being fused with Iblis to form Solaris in case you didn't know that)

"They already have that girl to worry about, so why not just search for the protector?"

"Because if we don't attack for some time, then they'll suspect and soon, either Nazo or Shadow would figure out what would be going on."

"So why don't we just send Yami and Sora?"

"Then you won't be with them to attack and they'll suspect something is up. It would be best if we send a monster out to distract them while we're searching." The two then stopped in front of a white door and Raze turned towards Mephiles. "How big of a fire can you make?"

"Not very at this point."

Raze chuckled lightly, obviously having something in mind. "Well that can be changed very easily."

* * *

><p>Station Square, once a peaceful town but now set on fire thanks to a giant black pheonix. Luckily, most of the citizens where outside and were evacuated out of the city. Some stayed behind to see if there were any one left, but no one dared to go near the main section as not only was the pheonix there, but also Sonic, Shadow and Aurora, were there fighting it. The battle looked fine, but they only had two people that can use Chaos attacks, and one of those two has Elemental Chaos attacks while the third didn't have either of these things. Now compare that to a giant bird that sends out gusts of wind and ember with a flap of its wings. How much percentage is there two winning? Probably fifty-fifty if the had one more player that has Elemental Chaos attacks, peferably Ice, but he is off somewhere else and we'll get to him later. For now, lets just focus on the fight.<p>

The fire bird sent a single gust of wind towards the ground, but the three heroes jumped out of the way. Once in the air, Sonic and Shadow performed a Spin Dash attack together, but the pheonix only pushed them with a wave of ember. However, it failed to realize that Aurora was in the air gathering energy. "Thundra!" Aurora shouted, sending a lightning bolt from the black clouds, due to the smoke of the fire, straight down to the bird. It struck and electricuted the pheonix, causing it to drop out of its flying state. "Looks like we're going to having fried chicken tonight guys!" Aurora shouted to Sonic and Shadow. Bad idea there. Not only did Sonic and Shadow sweat dropped at the _horrible_ pun, but upon hearing it being called a chicken, the fire bird flapped its wings, letting out the electirc energy, and flew towards the she-cat with fire in its beak.

It then shot a black fire back ball and her, but Aurora managed to dodge that and paid the price for it. The fire caught on to her ankle and second degree burned it, if not third degree. This wasn't it though. The pheonix grabbed the cat by the back of the neck and was gathering another fire ball in its mouth. Knowing what was going to happen, Sonic rushed up a burning building at great speed underneath the fire bird, but due to how high the bird was, the blue blur couldn't be able to reach. However, Sonic then did his Spin Dash attack and was able to hit the pheonix in the stomach, causing it to let go of Aurora. But Sonic also paid the price by getting hit by the fire ball that was shot at him.

Sonic was sent flying to the ground, creating a little crater, but was badly hurt. He was burnt beyond a third degree burn and was surrounded by little black embers that could grow if given flamable things. Shadow rushed to him, only to find out that he blacked out, probably from impact. The ebony hedgehog didn't know what to do and Aurora flew down to be by his side. "This is bad. This is _very_ bad." Aurora said as she placed a hand on Sonic's head, but took it back. "If we don't find Jade and Nazo quickly, Sonic will die."

"Then what do we do? At this point, I can't even use my Chaos Spear without getting blown in the face from that bird." Shadow said. Aurora looked doubtful, as if she didn't have any ideas that could help. There was then a screech from the pheonix and curiosity struck the two. Looking over the edge of the crater, they saw the bird getting wrapped in thick vines thanks to Jade. The pheonix burned the vines, but as it did, it got tackled by a wolf none other than Nazo.

The bird caught itself in mid flight and sent repeated gusts of wind and ember towards the fighting pair, but the two where able to stand their ground. Nazo then turned to his hedgehog form and formed a single spear. He then tossed it towards the pheonix and burst into a wave of homing Chaos Spears. In contact, the spears exploded and covered the bird in powdered snow. The snow melted to water, but it still could down the bird and made it lose all of its fire and made it weaker.

Nazo then gathered red chaos energy. "Chaos Blast!" Nazo performed the strongest Chaos attack known and the pheonix was caught in it and disappeared instintly. The attack also whipped away most of fire and left only small amount of embers.

Thunder rolled in the sky and it started to pour lots of water onto the city. Shadow and Aurora crawled out of the crater with Sonic and layed the blue hedgehog down on his back. Jade and Nazo saw the knocked out and badly burned hedgehog and rushed over. "What happened to him?" Jade asked then saw Aurora's burned ankle. "What happened to you?"

"That bird did it, you idiot." Aurora answered angerly. "Where the hell have you two been when we were fighting that thing?"

"We had to get the others out of here before they got caught in it. Was that okay with you?" Nazo answered. He then calmed down and turned towards Sonic. "In any case, he have to get him to full health before it gets any worse."

Nazo got on one side and Jade got on the other side. Aurora pulled Shadow a foot away from the two as they placed one of their hands on Sonic's, Nazo placed his other on Sonic's chest and Jade placed his other hand on Sonic's forehead. The two then focused some of their energy into the blue hedgehog's body and the three was surrounded by a white casting circle.

"What are they doing?" Shadow whispered to Aurora, but the she-cat ignored it.

After awhile, Sonic's body was regaining it's former glory, indicating that he was healling fast, and soon, the white circle closed onto Sonic. The two protectors removed their hands and waited. Rain kept pelting on them, but the hedgehog was still unconsious. Jade looked like he was about to give up on the hedgehog, but Nazo was the opposite. _Sonic, don't you dare die on us now. We need you in this hour of darkness and without you, everything that you know and care about will soon perish. You're the Earth's guardian. This planet won't even survive a day without you._

_The Servers are the Seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The Controller, is the one that unifies the Chaos. Light of the Master Emerald, come to this being and give him the energy he needs to keep going so he can defeat the evil._ A female and ancient voice called out inside the heads of Nazo, Jade and Aurora. This surprised them as they knew the voice right away. Sonic was then covered in a white aura and Aurora and Shadow rushed over to see what was going on. After another moment, the white aura disappeared and Sonic's eyes began twiching.

He slowly opened them and after a few blinks, Sonic sat up. He saw everyone surrounding him. "Hey guys, how long was I out?"

"Long enough to keep us worried." Nazo answered.

"Really? Wow." Sonic then realized something. "You say that we're enemies and yet _you_ were worried about me?"

"I was _not_ the one worried about you." Nazo said as he immedietly stood up, turned his back and crossed his arms. "Honestly, I can't even think about helping you like that again."

"Aw, you're just jeolous that he already belongs to Amy, aren't you?" Aurora said. Shadow and Jade were deeply confused on whats going on between the three. (Referring to the previous chapter)

"I thought we already ended the topic this morning!" Nazo shouted at Aurora with a big red vein on his forehead.

Before anyone could say anything else...

"Hey guys!" Everyone turned to see Tails rushing towards them. Once he reached them, he caught his breath.

"What's wrong?" Jade asked.

"Aurora, Shadow, Sonic, you know the two emeralds that we located were in the Amazon?" Tails asked the three.

"What about them?" Shadow asked.

"The silver emerald is somewhere in the Artic and the red emerald is found in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean."

"Katrina is able to last in freezing cold climates so I don't think we have to worry about that." Aurora said.

"But we know the Scorch won't even last a second in water so how the heck is he still alive?" Nazo asked.

"It's a little hard to explain, but if we head to Mystic Ruins then I'll show you."

* * *

><p>"Well the pheonix failed." Mephiles said<p>

_But it has kept them distracted long enough. _Raze said through the demon's head while in the dark castle.

Mephiles appeared on an island that had a beach along the water font and more in land, there was dried grass and trees. In the center of the island was a tall mountain that went past black clouds that hovered over the island and next to it was a smaller one that sending black smoke to the clouds. Mephiles began to get a familiar feeling. "He's here."

_Just as that wolf said. He's gotta be on top one of those two mountains. Find him and I'll make sure that you'll be in your true form when you return to the castle. Now Go!_

* * *

><p>One Trouble ends, the next begins. After being so close to death, Sonic is up again and so is most of the others. But what is Raze and Mephiles up to and why do they need Scorch in order for the Time Demon to reach his Solaris form? Find out next time.<p>

For those of you who study magic and all that, don't feel offended by the circle okay? I needed to add some detail into it so please be nice about it. Again, please don't feel offended.


	10. Chase for the Emeralds, Part One

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Nine: Isolated Island; Chase for the Emeralds, Part One<strong>

After arriving into Mystic Ruins, the heroes went straight for Tails' Workshop to get an update on the location of the Red Chaos Emerald and the Silver Chaos Emerald. Upon entering the base, Sonic was immedietly greeted by Amy and the team was informed that Miki is here as well, but still sleeping. They then gathered at the computer that showing the world. Currently, two were on Angel Island, the Blue and Purple Chaos Emeralds, three were with them, the Cyan, Yellow and Green Chaos Emeralds, and the remaining two emeralds were seperated this time. The Red Chaos Emerald was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and the Silver Chaos Emerald was up in the Artic.

"I'll ask this again, how the heck is Scorch in the middle of the ocean?" Nazo asked.

"I wondered the same thing until I zoomed in on the area." Tails answered and pressed a few buttons. The screen the zoomed in on the area where the emerald is. It was an oddly shaped island and the center of it was covered with blackness while the rest of the island was shown. There two dots there: One was red and was in the middle of the blackness, and the other was a yellow dot and it was moving slowly towards the red dot. "I found this while I was searching for the Chaos Emerald. Apparently the radar picked up another source of Chaos Energy."

"Hold on a second." Aurora said as she took a good look at the screen. She then pictured the island in her head and she suddenly felt a familiar energy, but it was not Elemental Chaos energy. "There's someone there and it has the exact same energy as Shadow's."

"But there's only one person in the entire world that has the same energy as Shadow and that's Mephiles." Sonic pointed out.

"If that's Mephiles then, why in the world would he be there searching for the emerald alone?" Jade asked. Everyone thought for a moment, but it was Nazo that said something first.

"Was Mephiles and Iblis one at some point long before this ever happened?" He asked Shadow.

"Yeah. When we fought him in that Time-Space rift in Soleana he somehow formed with Iblis to create Solaris."

"But Elise blew out the flames so he wasn't supose to excist any longer." Sonic objected.

"When we were in Ice Cap, Mephiles said something about being trapped and Raze set him free as well as giving him the flames of Iblis." Nazo said. "They need Scorch for a sealing so Mephiles and Iblis can join again."

"Then we might as well go to that island now before Mephiles gets the Chaos Emerald." Aurora said.

"Two of us needs to stay here to keep the rest of us updated on the location of Katrina while the other keeps a good eye on Miki's health." Amy said.

"I'll stay and watch Miki." Jade stepped foward. Now they just need on more person. Shadow turned to look at Sonic, the blue hedgehog and Nazo turned to Aurora, and the she-cat turned towards Sonic. It's either going to be Aurora staying or Sonic staying.

"Aurora, you need to have that ankle looked at before you go anywhere." Nazo said.

"And it took you and Jade just to revive Sonic." Aurora protested.

"So I'm in full health then." Sonic said.

"He's right Aurora." Jade said. "Besides that ankle will only slow you down lots so you better stay here."

"But..."

"Aurora, I'm the second oldest out of the bunch and I'm praticlly a doctor around here so it would be wise if you don't do anything to object."

"Fine." Aurora sighed.

"Great, so we''re set." Shadow said.

"Not yet you guys." Tails said as he pulled out three wrist bands. "I checked the lay out of the island and where the emerald is, there are a couple of volcanoes so I built these. They're to protect you from the intense heat and the toxic air in that area so nothing bad will happen." The two tailed fox then passed them around to the three hedgehogs, but felt incredibly uneasy when he gave one to Nazo, which is understandable considering on their first encounter the hedgehog killed Tails while trying to save Sonic's life. Fortunetly, the feeling didn't last very long.

"Shall I do the honors?" Nazo asked Shadow after the three put the bracelets on. The black hedgehog nodded and in a moment, the three disappeared through Chaos Control.

However, as soon as they did that, a door opened. "Hey guys, what did I miss?" A tired voice asked. Tails, Amy, Aurora and Jade turned and couldn't believe their eyes.

* * *

><p>The trio appeared in the middle of a dried up forest and they took in the surroundings. "Well, this is one sad place." Sonic said. "It's more dried than a bone that's been out in the sun."<p>

"We don't have time for sight seeing." Nazo told him as he looked at the two mountains in the center of the island. Guessing by the height of the smaller one, Nazo could estimate that the three of them were at least 50 to 60 miles away, possibly 70-80 miles. "If we start walking from right here..."

"Whoa, who says we're walking?"

"I do because unlike you two, I can't even come close to running as fast as you two. Besides, with all this dried up area, we could get un welcomed attention."

"So we're walking all the way up there?" Shadow asked. "Why don't we just use Chaos Control to get up there?"

"You're Chaos Control is limited with out an emerald. If we were to use mine, then I would have to get back in it and since yesterday, I can't be able to do so. Other than that, we need as much Chaos Energy as we need if we end up getting to Scorch as soon as Mephiles does." He then started walking. Sonic and Shadow gave each other a quick glance before Shadow smirked. "And don't even think about running ahead of me either you two." Nazo called out a few feet ahead, startling the two.

The two hedgehogs then followed the protector and the three stayed in silence. Sonic was close behind Nazo while Shadow stayed behind a bit while he was in thought. He stared at the two and noticed how similar the two were in more ways than physically. The body frame is the same and Nazo looks like Sonic in his Super Form, and the two has the exact same eye color. They could be long lost brothers instead of enemies, but then this would not be happening. Though there is fur color and height difference, Nazo being a half head taller than either of them, either one could possibly be mistaken for the other in a situation, if a person didn't have the ability to sense Chaos Energy. Still doesn't change the fact that the two looked more alike than Sonic is to Shadow.

If you were in Sonic's shoes right now and was standing next to Nazo, you would be getting the same awkward feeling that the azure hedgehog was getting. And being so close to a hedgehog that can change to a wolf that was your size and slightly taller was also a feeling of uneasiness. Nazo could smell it due to his wolf trait, but he ignored it and didn't say a word.

And that's how it was for the awhile, nothing but absolute silence for the three. Yeah, great field trip.

Pretty soon, they heard a hissing like noise, causing Sonic and Shadow to stop. Nazo walked right to a bush, stick his hand under it, and pulled out a horned rattle snake. Nazo held onto it close to the head so the snake wouldn't be able to bite the hedgehog. The snake opened it's mouth towards Sonic and Shadow, and the two backed up a bit. "Ophidiophobic, are we?"

"No." The both of them said at the same time. Nazo then put down the snake and it scurried away towards the ocean. As the snake slithered past the two, Sonic and Shadow backed up a bit.

"Well it seems like it." Nazo said as he started walking again.

"As far as we know, that snake can kill with one bite." Shadow pointed out as he followed. Sonic soon did. "We were just being cautious unlike you."

"It knew my wolverine trait and tried to get away." Nazo said. "Besides, was heading in our direction anyways from those mountains." He then stopped and his ears began to twich. He sensed something approaching. "Hold your ground." He told Sonic and Shadow.

Just then, a powerful earthquake struck and caught the two hedgehogs by surprised. The earth opened up into small cracks and steam started to come out of it. "Lets go!" Sonic shouted over the steam. The two others nodded and started running. More cracks started to appear and they dd their best to get by the steam without so much as a strand of fur getting in there. The earthquake stopped but more tiny cracks started to pop up and steam started to come out. This caused the three of them to run faster toward the mountains and eventually, Soonic and Shadow began to pick the speed up a little faster while Nazo was already at his full speed. Sonic then grabbed him by the right wrist and ran faster towards the mountains. Shadow wasn't far behind on distance nor speed, but all three of them were trying their best to not run into an uexpecting steam.

They stopped when they were close to the base of the mountains and they sat on the ground to catch their breathe. Shadow was more than fine, Sonic was kind of okay but his shoulder feels like it's going to get out of its socket due to dragging Nazo, and the said hedgehog was breathing heavily due to the intense heat that the steams were giving off. Although the wrist bands were to protect them from intense heat and the gases the volcanoes on this island were giving off, Nazo was still effected thanks to being the protector of the ice element so it was natural for him to feel a little weak.

After a few moments, the wind was starting to blow from the east and Nazo picked up a new scent that Sonic and Shadow didn't, at it was a little strong too. It was familiar, too familiar at that and he knew that it was trouble. "It seems that Mephiles is close by." He told the other two.

"So what do we do now?" Sonic asked.

Nazo got up and started walking towards the base of the mountains. Sonic and Shadow followed him and it was only a few minuets before they got to the base. The mountains sides were shaped at a 30 degree angle from the bottom to the half way point, but then starts to get more difficult to climb. The taller one was up in the black clouds so it was hard to tell if the top was there, but the smaller moutain half the height at least and it looked like it was a lot easier to climb. Nazo placed his hand against the ground of the mountain and tried to get a little ice on it. It worked, but it melted quickly. "Okay, it looks like the island had an eruption just recently so the volcanoes can still be pretty active. We need to start climbing this one."

"Why the tall one when we can take the shorter one then work our why up?" Shadow asked. "It looks safe."

"Do you see that smoke coming from it? It may look easy, but one slip and you're going to get cooked. I don't want any of us risking that chance and other than that, Mephiles might be taking that route."

"Well, then lets hurry up already." Sonic then got a running head start, but didn't go to his full speed as he was being cautious not to fall and get injured. Shadow and Nazo did the same.

It was an easy climb at first so they made at good distance up within a half hour before they had to start actually climbing up. And when I mean climbing, I mean jumping from ledge to ledge thanks to Sonic and Shadow. Nazo did a little jumping as well, but after a few jumps he had to switch to climbing thanks to him losing his footing every often. They were soon near the top within a few hours, but Nazo had to stop. He was on a ledge and he was sweating like crazy.

Sonic noticed this and started to go back down until he was next to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah...lets just..." Before Nazo could say anymore, he faded away and the Cyan Chaos Emerald appeared in his place. The emerald lost it's color and became dull as a normal rock. Sonic grabbed it and was in thought before putting the emerald inside his quills. He then climbed back up and was next to Shadow.

"Looks like it's just the two of us for now." Sonic said before starting again. Shadow followed and before long, the reached the clouds and was beyond them. They saw the top and it was...glowing. They kept going and when they reached the top, they realized that summit had a very thich ring and there was a large hole in the center. Going forward, they saw that at least two miles down it, there was bubbling lava that had rocks floating. On top one of them was the Red Chaos Emerald.

"We found the emerald, now how do we get it?" Shadow asked.

"I can help with that." A new and dark voice said. Sonic and Shadow turned and saw a Chaos Lance come at them. They moved to either sides in order to dodge the attack and they looked to see the attacker. "Now that you lead me to the emerald, I'll take it from here." Mephiles as he took a step forward.

"Not a chance, Mephiles." Sonic said as he got into battle stance. Shadow was about to as well, but he noticed that the emerald sank into the lava and that something moved from Mephiles to inside the lava. It looked like a tiny fire slug, but Shadow knew better than that because it was Iblis' flame. But what was it doing?

Just then, another earthquake came by and took the three by surprise. The lava started to swirl like a whirlpool and the Chaos Emerald flew out of it. It flew into the air, being followed by the flames, and it looked like it was trying to avoid the flame. Then, the Cyan Chaos Emerald flew out of Sonic's quills and flew into the air. It flew behind the red emerald and sent little waves of ice at the flame. It slowed down some, but not enough and it then it started to through little embers at the cyan emerald while the red emerald flew back to the lava.

It was at that point that Sonic and Shadow both did their Spin Dash attacks at Mephiles, who caught the two in time to stop them, but had trouble pushing back. Eventually, it was Sonic and Shadow that pushed Mephiles back. The Time Demon stopped himself and started to form dark energy balls. He then tossed them at his enemies, save for Nazo's emerald, and they were the ones pushed back, close the edge of the crater.

Mephiles stared evily at Sonic and Shadow, and the two returned the stare with determination and protection. No matter what, they know that they can't allow Mephiles to get a hold of the Chaos Emerald that was now resting inside the lava whirlpool, get back Iblis' flame, and reach his final form.

This fight will determine the tables in sealing Raze, whether it will turn on the Sonic Heroes, or if it will turn on Raze himself.

* * *

><p>Things are getting tougher for our heroes as they are facing one of their toughest enemies yet. If they fail this battle, then the hope for the future will be lost.<p>

Next time on Gathering of the Seven: An Unexepting Turn; Chase for the Emeralds, Part Two.


	11. Chase for the Emeralds, Part Two

**Gathering of the Seven**

A/N: I respectfully don't own Sonic and Nazo, they belong to their respectfully owners. I own the OC's.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Ten: An Unexpecting Turn; Chase for the Emeralds, Part Two<strong>

"So, let me get this straight. Shadow, Sonic and Nazo are on that island looking for the Chaos Emerald there while Mephiles is on there as well and they are pratically walking on unknown territory that is more than possibly dangerous?" Miki asked after being informed of what happened over the past twenty four hours while she was asleep.

"Yep, and the Silver Chaos Emerald is up in the Artic somewhere." Amy answered.

"As far as we know, one of Raze's warriors could be up there searching for it." Tails added.

"Most likely Yami considering she is able to with stand cold temeperatures." Aurora said. When the she-cat said the wolf's name, Miki's eyes had a hint of fire in them.

Mango was the only one to see this. "Miki, you're not going after her this time."

"I won't let her go after what happened yesterday. She caught me off guard that time and I'm ready to go for round two."

"Well then let me or Jade go after her with you." Aurora offered. "She is the strongest warrior Raze has and you're going to need help."

"I can do it myself you guys. Besides, I don't want you to get hurt or worse because of me." With that, she disappeared, but little to the rest of them, Mango disappeared as well.

* * *

><p>On the island where the Red Chaos Emerald is located, a heavy duty fight was going on at the top of the high volcanoe that reached past the clouds. Surprisingly, the lava wasn't even effected by the blasts that were being caused at the summit. Mephiles tossed a few energy balls at his enemies, but Sonic jumped out of the way while Shadow countered with his Chaos Spear. While in the air, Sonic performed his Spin Dash and knocked Mephiles away a few feet. Meanwhile, up in the air, Nazo was having trouble of his own. His emerald was flying through the air why trying the get away from the flames of Iblis as it was shooting little fire embers at the emerald. Each time, it missed but there would be a few close calls when it woul barely skin against the emerald.<p>

Mephiles summoned a bunch of black fire creatures(Just like the ones in Sonic Next Gen) and they attacked the two hedgehogs. Shadow sent Chaos Spears at the birds and Sonic did his Spin Dash at the lizards. Both creatures were destroyed in an instant, but they looked around to see where the snake creatures were. They then heard a cry and turned to see that Nazo, in his wolf form, got attacked unxpectingly from the snake creatures. Sonic jumped over to the wolf's side while Shadow stayed behind and blocked Mephiles' punch.

Nazo bit down on one snake and tossed it to another while Sonic jumped into the air, grabbed the snake close to the head, and tossed to Shadow's and Mephiles' direction. The two hedgehogs saw this and jumped out of the way immedietly. Nazo returned to his hedgehog form and was already overwhelmed by the heat the volcanoe was giving off as he collapsed to his knees. Sonic saw this but also noticed that the last snake was about to bite the weak hedgehog from behind. The azure hedgehog kicked away, right into the lava, and checked Nazo's condition. "You okay?"

"Something's...not right." Nazo said. "The wrist band Miles made should block the majority of the heat from entering my body...but it's not."

"Is it just you or is it something else?"

"It can't be the lava...that's for certain. It also...can't be Scorch's power either."

"Then it has to be Iblis, but he isn't in his form."

"Not yet anyways." Nazo said as he got up. He saw that Shadow and Mephiles were in hand to hand combat, but he couldn't be able to find the flame that was chasing him earlier. "Where is that flame anyways?" Sonic looked around too, but neither of them could find it.

However, they were going to get their answer.

* * *

><p>A white light appeared and Miki jumped out of it, then the light disappeared as if it was a portal. The wind picked up and she began to shiver. The hedgehog took in the surroundings, but it was hard to see because the Artic was having a big blizzard. However, a blizzard never stopped Miki from finding anything and the cold wasn't at all bad for her, dispite the fact that the temperature up here is <em>way<em> below zero degrees celsius. Her ears twiched as she heard a crunch sound behind her. She turned, expecting it to be Yami, but instead found Mango. "I thought I told you that I could do it alone."

"I wasn't going to let you go either way, Miki." The orange she-cat told the hedgehog. "Since day one, we promised each other that we would be there for each other. I wasn't able to be there for you yesterday, and I won't let it happen again."

Miki was astound at her friend for trying to be there to help her if there will be battle, even if the she-cat barely has any fighting experience other than watching the hedgehog train with Sonic and Shadow. "Thanks Mango. Now lets find that Chaos Emerald and help out the guys."

Mango nodded and the two were on their way. Since Miki could sense a Chaos Emeralds energy from a great distance, she took the lead while Mango kept her smell sense on high alert incase Yami would attack unexpectingly. After awhile of walking, there was something in the air that bothered Mango so she stopped. Miki noticed this and stopped too. "What's wrong?" Miki asked, noticing Mango's twitching nose and ears.

"The scent I'm smelling. It isn't Yami, but it is a wolf scent."

"Could it be the protector of the wind element?" Miki asked.

"I think it is, and it sounds like he or she is close by."

"Yeah, the energy is getting stronger and stronger by a heartbeat. Problem is, but I can't be able to pin point exactly were it's coming from."

"Well then, let me help out a little." A female voice said from behind.

"Miki, look out!" Mango shouted as she turned to where the voice came from. Miki turned in time to see a whirlwind come at her. Mango pushed her out of the way and turned to the origin of the voice. "Come out and show yourself! We are not here to harm you."

"How do I know that you aren't one of Raze's recuits?" The voice asked as the wind blew.

"First off, we have no clue who Raze is or what he looks like." Miki started as she stood up. "Second, my name is Miki Hoshiko the Hedgehog, a friend of Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow the Hedgehog that defeated Nazo years ago. This here is my friend, Mango the Cat, we came looking for the protector of the wind element and I'm guess that is you?"

Finally, after a moment of silence, the wind calmed down and Miki and Mango saw a figure walking towards them. The snow began to ease up and they saw a silver, female wolf with blue eyes and white warriors clothing. It was no wonder how they couldn't see her up until now that she's close to them because she blended into the snow so well, just Miki. The wolf looked at them with a doubting glare, but then lightened up a bit. "Yes, I know you two." She said softly. "It's just so hard to trust even an innocent person like you after what has happened the past two days."

"Is your name Katrina?" Mango asked.

"Yes it is, I assume that the others have said my name a few times."

"Well, I wouldn't say the others but some of them."

"Some? Who are with you right now?"

"Jade, Aurora and Nazo. Yesterday we were trying to find the protector of the water element but I got attacked by Yami and she took him." Miki said.

"And now I'll also be taking this one thanks to you." A new a too familiar voice said. They looked around and easily spotted the black wolf hovering in the sky. "I am surprised that you awaken this early, normally that dust would keep you asleep for a week at least."

_Dust? Was that what went inside her?_ Mango asked herself.

"Well a little water never hurts now does it? That's the downside to that battle yesterday, Yami. Now it's time for round two." Miki then formed her sword from yesterday and got into fighting stance. But before the hedgehog could do anything, Katrina placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You shouldn't be picking a fight you can't win, Miki." The silver wolf said. "You don't have any idea how powerful she is."

"You're right, Katrina. But now I got a boost from this little stone right here." Yami then pulled out the Purple Chaos Emerald. "With the power of this specific emerald, I'll be even more stronger than even Mephiles in his final form."

"We'll see about that." Miki then jumped into the air and was ready to swing her sword. But as she did, a force stopped it. A barrier was put up around Yami as the emerald glowed in a dark aura. Miki was forced back a bit as she felt a wave of energy coming from the emerald, a wave of dark energy. The barrier disappeared and a wave of black spears came at her. The hedgehog sliced them with her sword, but she saw Yami come up from the side with a purple like claw ready. Miki had her sword up to defend herself, but the claw went straight through and scratched Miki clear across the cheek, but that wasn't over with.

The black wolf did a whole bunch of kicks and punches that Miki couldn't block due to the speed (Think of Close Combat from Pokemon). She managed to catch one kick and twirled around to do her own kick. But she her foot was caught by the claw and she felt a serge of electricity go through her leg and up. Yami then tossed the hedgehog to the ground and formed little stars. She tossed them at the hedgehog, but Mango got in the way and reflected the stars with a sheild. The stars exploded in impact with the sheild, but it didn't shatter like Yami was expecting. She was then sent away with a powerful gusts that can only becaused by Katrina.

After a moment, Miki got up as Katrina rushed over. "Are you okay?" The wolf asked.

"Yeah, what is the element the Chaos Emerald has?" Miki asked.

"I'm the protector of the cosmic element." A new voice said. They all turned and saw a lavander and white wolf with royal purple eyes and white clothing. She was walking towards them. "My name is Mira, I already know the two of you so you don't have to explain."

_She can use a little bit of manner._ Miki thought.

"Do you know where River is?" Katrina asked.

"Last time I saw him was at Raze's castle, but I don't know if he escaped with the echidnas." Mira answered. Miki and Mango had their interests sparked and questions were buzzing throught their heads. But before either of them asked anything, there was a beep coming from Miki's communicator.

"Miki, are you there?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, I'm here." Miki responded.

"We need you to get back here fast, something's happening on the island the guys are at."

"What's going on?"

"Everything just sky rocketed and the island is covered with black clouds. I can't see what's going on."

"Okay, we'll be there in less than a minuet."

With that, Miki turned off the communicator and turned to the others. "Something's happening on the island Sonic, Shadow and Nazo is at right now. My guess is that Iblis has appeared."

"Then Scorch is in a heap of trouble as we speak. If Iblis and Mephiles fuse, then they'll become Solaris and none of us can be able to stop him." Katrina told them.

"Then we better get going." Mira said as she made a portal. The four of them were ready to jump in when a Chaos Lance nearly hit them. "What was that?"

"Jump first, ask questions later." Mango said, as she was already heading in. Katrina and Mira jumped in as well, but Miki felt something behind her. She turned, only to realize that she was being pushed into the portal.

* * *

><p>The ground shook as some of the rock went into the swirling lava as the red emerald hovered over the vortex. The flame surrounded the emerald in a tiny sphere cage and was getting inside the emerald. As the flame was fully inside the lava, a beam came out of the emerald and headed into the lava, draining out the emeralds power. Soon the beam was gone and the ground stopped shaking as the lava was forming something deep inside. A lava creature soon rosed out and was standing in the lava (Final Boss from Silver's Story so to speak). It created a roar and sent a wave of intense heat to the hedgehogs. Shadow looked away for a second and Mephiles was gone.<p>

Sonic and Nazo also looked away for a second, but didn't give in to it. "You got a plan, Nazo?" Sonic asked the other. Sadly, he shook. Even if he had his full strength, he needed to be in his super form just to be able to get his ice attacks to make contact with it and do some damage. "Well that's just great."

"And you think you can do better?"

"Now is not the time to be starting that."

Little to them, Mephiles formed out of the ground a good distance away. He then formed his Chaos Lance attack but before it even reached half way, a portal appeared and it went through that other than getting Sonic or Nazo. The said hedgehogs turned sensing something behind them and saw that the portal appeared. After a while, it disappeared and it revealed Miki, Mango, Katrina and Mira. Not too far from Miki was Yami and the said girls were giving each other a stare.

Shadow appeared by their side and noticed the sudden appearence of the girls. He then sensed a powerful urge coming from Miki and Yami, but neither one was wanting to attack. He turned to Sonic and Nazo and saw that they were sensing the same thing. But before anything could happen between them, Iblis sent another roar and this time, the ground was starting to crumble beneath their feet. Most of them were already in the air, but some wasn't so lucky. Miki went back and grabbed Sonic before getting any closer to the burning magma and held onto the side wall that was newly created. She looked down and saw a pilliar of lava coming at them. She saw that Nazo was on the ledge so she tossed Sonic at him and climbed up. Nazo caught the blue hedgehog and moved out of the way for Miki to get out, just in time before she got over cooked.

They turned and saw Iblis shooting fire balls at the others that were in the sky while Mephiles stayed a distance away. Miki tried to find Yami, but the black wolf was nowhere to be found. Sonic and Nazo suddenly jumped out of the way for some reason but Miki didn't know what until she was hit by a dark sphere. She nearly fell of the edge but was still able to catch herself. However, she lost her footing and fell straight in. Iblis saw this a disappeared into the lava as Miki created a sheild around herself.

She went into the lava and sank down, but her sheild was able to hold. Spears were coming at her from all directions and were trying to break the sheild. Miki manuvered through the lave just to avoid the spears but the intense heat was cracking the sheild. She then saw the Chaos Emerald appear in the sheild with her, but it was dull as it lost a lot of power.

_"Listen to me, Miki. You need to get me out of here before he appears again." _A male voice ordered.

"But how can I? The sheild isn't going to last longer and I won't be able to make it out in time." Miki said as more cracks appeared.

The emerald then stopped floating as it lost all of its energy. Miki held onto it and held it close to her chest as she was trying to transfer some of her energy to the emerald. But she noticed that Iblis' eyes were staring at her as the sheild gave in and opened up. But something happened that caught Miki by surprised. She was being protected by an unknown force as she was surrounded by white light. Miki then saw a hedgehog like figure coming towards the emerald and it regained it's color and energy. A tiny flame of Iblis then went inside the emerald and it swirled around Miki as the hedgehog figure disappeared.

Back on the surface, the others saw this strange phenomina as a white star like light shot into the sky followed by Iblis. The light disappeared and revealed an angel like hedgehog with the wing spand as long as the hedgehog's arms and a little farther out. The hedgehog had golden eyes as gold marks appeared on her hands and boots, and she had a white warriors clothing with a single blue strip of cloth that was tied to the waist and the end floated in the air. The hedgehog and the fire monster stared at each other, both ready to attack.

"Who the heck is that?" Nazo asked.

"I think that's Miki." Sonic answered. This amazed the other hedgehog as well as Shadow, who was currently hovering in the air thanks to his hover shoes.

Yami, Mephiles and the other protectors found this strange as well, but so far it looks like this change will easy out the battle some. However, Yami was getting a feeling that was telling her to attack now, but part of her held her back as she wanted to see what attacks this new Miki had that was different than her original form.

* * *

><p>A strange transformation and an all out battle for the Chaos Emerald's energy.<p>

Next time on Gathering of the Seven, Chapter Eleven: Battle on a Vanishing Island; Chase for the Emeralds, Part Three.

See you guys then.


	12. Chase for the Emeralds, Part Three

**Chapter Eleven: ****Battle**** on a Vanishing ****Island****; Chase for the Emeralds, Part Three**

Thunder roared over the island as explosions broke out. While Miki, in her angelic form, was fighting with Iblis, Shadow and Katrina was fighting off Mephiles and Mango and Mira was fighting off Yami. On the ground, Nazo and Sonic were dodging every attack that was either 1) Being 'accidentally' thrown at them, 2) Being reflected in their direction, or 3) One attack colliding with another one and the shards, or left over, coming in their direction. They could be helping their team mates, but Sonic doesn't have his flying ability because he is not in his super form and Nazo's Elemental Chaos powers are useless due to the intense heat in the environment, even though this is a very good time to use them. So basically, they're sitting ducks if things get a 'little' out of hand, save for Sonic's speed.

Off to one side of the volcano, Yami and Mira were sending off energy blasts that collided and exploded into tiny shards of energy. Yami then formed the black spear with the purple rock at the end that she used on Miki in their first encounter and sent dark energy waves at them. Mira countered them with her energy spheres, which caused an explosion domino effect. Mango took this advantage and went straight through the clouds where the explosions were. She surprised the black wolf as the cat sent a kick that almost got her in the head. Mango then threw a few more kicks and punches, but of course Yami blocked most of them. However, on kick in the gut got her by surprise and Mango clasped her hands together and slammed the fist on Yami's back, causing the black wolf to go down to the edge of the crater a few meters away from Sonic and Nazo. Yami recovered quickly and went back into the air with her spear ready.

On the other side of the volcano, Mephiles and Shadow sent a single wave of Chaos Spears, most collided but some manage to miss each other and hit the hedgehogs. Katrina created mini whirlwinds and sent them at the demon hedgehog(Just think of the ones in Super Mario Sunshine). Even though they looked like they were just air, in all truth they were physical air, air that has the tiny gas particles formed together and flows in the wind, and they can hurt giving the right speed and how solid the particles are, they can draw blood even if everything is in the perfect condition. The Time Demon was surrounded by these whirlwinds and as they were coming at him from every direction possible, he tried to get away. However, some of them caught by surprise and cut him a bit, drawing black blood from legs, arms and even the back and stomach a bit. Once the whirlwinds had no energy left, they disappeared, giving a chance for Mephiles to attack. He focused his chaos energy and drew back his right arm as if he was going to punch, but instead of punching, he sent his devastating attack: Chaos Lance. Shadow and Katrina dodged this attack just barely due to the speed of the attack, but someone else saw this attack as well.

In the crater, Miki created little light shards and sent them at Iblis' head. The fire monster countered the shards by summoning fire balls and sent flying at the shards. The two attacks collided and little chunks of molten rock were sent to the ground. Sonic and Nazo saw the rocks coming and dodged real quick. They only manage to get little burn marks on their fur, but nothing close to being serious. Through the explosion cloud, Miki formed a spear made of white energy and tossed it. Unexpectedly, she manage to get Iblis in the eyes and when the spear got absorbed into the lava, the fire monster let out a roar, signaling that he was in pain. As the cloud cleared away, Miki saw that the monster's eyes were faded and the pupils were tiny that they looked like that they weren't there anymore. Iblis had gone blind.

Miki took this chance and started to focus intensively. She focused her Chaos energy into one hand and her Ki energy into her other hand. The energy then formed orbs and she brought the spears together. Now, earlier, the Chaos energy was yellow and her Ki energy was blue. This time around, her Chaos energy was red and her Ki energy was gold with a bit of white into it, possibly due to her angel form but we don't know for certain. She combined the two attacks and created a golden pink energy sphere, then added more energy. As she did, she started to feel a bit out of it but she still focused on her attack. She has drawn attention from everyone else as they felt a energy level spike and saw the attack. "**Chaos Ki Fusion!**"

Miki sent the attack straight at Iblis and in contact with it, there was a big explosion of white light and engulfed the entire monster and some lava. Sonic and Nazo moved to a safe spot while the others protected their eyes from the light. Once the light was gone, everyone looked at where Iblis used to be but instead saw the tiny flame and a visible, red spirit orb. The spirit orb went directly towards Miki and infused with her, but there was no difference, and the flame went directly to Mephiles. Nazo and Sonic both came out of their hiding spot, both relieved that the monster was gone for the time being, but Nazo looked at the angelic hedgehog while in thought. _Could she be the one? But she's just a kid, and how did she have that much energy?_

Miki safely floated to the ground, but collapsed onto her knees. The others, save for Mephiles and Yami, rushed over to her side with concern looks on their faces. "Are you okay?" Mango asked. Before Miki could answer, the hedgehog was engulfed by the star like light. After a second, the light disappeared and revealed not only Miki's original form, but also the Red Chaos Emerald that was in full.

"Note to self, don't use up so much energy in one day." Miki said as she was catching her breath like she ran a marathon for three hours straight.

"How the heck did you manage to get into that form?" Sonic asked.

"I have no clue honestly." Miki stood back onto her feet.

Before anything could be said, Nazo and Mango's ears twitched. Curiosity struck them, but then they started to get filled with fear. They turned to the crater where the lava is and saw something glowing and rising. Then, cracks were forming from the crater as an earthquake began to happen. "Guys, we need to go now." Mango said.

"Why?" Mira asked before she noticed the rising lava. "Oh."

Mephiles and Yami saw this too, but it was only Mephiles that disappeared. Yami stayed and eyed Miki like a hawk staring down on it's next victim. The heroes started to make their way down after grabbing the Chaos Emerald and after making a good distance within five minuets, they heard the explosion at the top. They saw the lava coming down at great speed and they made their way down at a more faster speed than before. Mango turned to her house cat form and was ahead of everyone, second Katrina. The only person that was behind was Miki as she was worn out after fighting with Iblis. One person ahead of her was Nazo and the hedgehog was about as worn out as Miki was, but was a bit faster and had more energy in him.

Miki then sensed something coming up from behind and saw a black energy sphere hit three feet away from her on the side of the volcano. It opened it a bit, but no lava was coming out fast enough for Miki to get concerned. She look at the direction it came from and saw Yami a good distance away from the erupting mountain. Miki saw the evil look in her eye and grew slightly frightened, but still had courage to look at that eye. Even though it was stupid, Miki gathered a tiny bit of energy and flew straight at Yami. Nazo was the only one that saw this, but kept going down the volcano.

Miki had her right arm back when she was close to Yami and swung it forward, but Yami moved out of the way and grabbed the arm. She then flipped over the hedgehog to send her to the surface, but Miki caught herself in time to see Yami's fist come at her. Miki caught it with her right hand and stared Yami in the face. The hedgehog then saw something that she didn't get a chance to see on their first encounter or in theArctic: They had a hint of a demonic feature, but they had not only a bit of evil in it, but lonely, sadness, hatred and fire. And just by looking at the eye, Miki had a stab feeling in her stomach as she knew it from somewhere before.

"Why is it that you're so hard to kill?" Yami asked.

"Because I'm that stubborn and I have dodged death more than once in my life." Miki answered. She then kicked Yami in the gut, sending the wolf flying back a few feet. The hedgehog then formed a focused wave of Chaos Spear and sent it right at Yami. It hit, but when the cloud cleared away, it showed that Yami had set up a dark shield.

"Is that right? But has your _family _dodge death more than once?" Miki then grew angry at the question as she felt a pain in her heart. She formed her sword and took a swing at the wolf. However, the shield stopped it but that didn't stop Miki from trying again and again. Yami only laughed at Miki's failed attempts, making the hedgehog only madder. "It's useless to do something that you can't succeed in, but you already experienced that before, have you?"

"Shut up!" Miki said as her blue eyes turned to a deadly red shade. Her the white blade turned blood red as the gold handle turned black. She took one more swing at the shield and this time, she shattered it but also managed to cut Yami's right shoulder a bit, drawing black blood. The sword disappeared and Miki threw all kinds of punches and kicks at the black wolf. Yami didn't have time to protect herself and was getting beaten badly by the enraged hedgehog. But after one kick in the head, Yami then grab hold of Miki's wrists and some how froze the legs.

"You really do get heated up when your family is brought up, don't 'ya?" Yami asked, taunting the hedgehog.

"I said shut up!" Miki yelled and tried to get out of Yami's grasp.

"It's useless to try and resist what has happened in the past, especially after what happened to your mother, Serena."

Miki just then lost it. She focused all the energy she had left all over her body and was created a dark aura around her. Yami was confused at this, but didn't bother to move until it was too late. "Chaos Burst!" Miki shouted and just like that, she let all of her energy out and did so much damage to Yami that even part of her clothing was gone. After realizing that she had gone a bit far, she disappeared as Miki fell out of the sky towards the shore.

After making their way to the base, the others looked back and saw that the lava was at the height where the smaller one was, which was also erupting but not as much as the other one. They turned to the direction of the shore but saw that sea water was leaking up from the cracks in the ground. "Okay, what now?" Katrina asked.

"We can use Chaos Control to get ourselves out of here." Shadow said.

"We don't have enough energy to even form a basic attack and you think that that will help?" Mira asked. "I can't even form a one person portal now after that fight."

"What about the Red Chaos Emerald?" Sonic asked.

"If Scorch can't even get out of his emerald, I doubt that he has enough strength to help."

They thought, but it was Nazo who spoke first. "What if we channel our energy and focus on Chaos Control?" He asked Mira and Katrina. "I barely have enough energy myself but with Scorch, we can be able to pull it off."

"It's been awhile since we did that." Katrina pointed out. "But it should work regardless."

"Hold it, where's Miki?" Mango asked upon returning to her humanoid form.

Right on cue, they heard a blast and saw Miki heading straight for the ocean. Nazo, out of some urge, wanted to go, but stayed where he was because if he went, then Katrina and Mira wouldn't have enough energy even with Scorch. Miki was heading straight for the water so she should be fine for a while. He sensed Sonic and Mango wanting to go, but they stayed behind as well for the two can't swim and they wanted to get back to actual land. Even though they were guilty about it, they had to stay with the group.

Finally, after some good focusing, Mira, Katrina and Nazo focused their Chaos energy to one great energy. They then teleported off the island as it was starting to sink while lava was running.

"Sora, get over here now!" A very angry voice shouted through the halls of the dark castle. The fox stopped in his tracks and held his breath as fear over took him. However, he ran over to where the voice originated from and it turned out that it was in the throne room and that it was Raze. The hedgehog was standing up and was surrounded by black crystals that was angled from his feet, like rose pedals kind of but more outward.

"Y-you called...Master Raze?" Sora asked as he felt the atmosphere in the room not in normal condition.

"You were supposed to keep guard of the steel room so that old fox wouldn't escape. Now he has and is off somewhere on Earth. And as far as I know, he could be with the other protectors!" As Raze raised his voice a bit, the crystals started to crack. Sora felt very uneasy right now and his mind was thinking so many things that he could even think of a word to say.

Fortunately for the fox, Mephiles appeared next to him in a kneeling position. "I'm sorry to bring troubling news, Master Raze, but it appeared as I didn't retrieve Scorch as planned."

"What?" Raze asked as he turned to the demon hedgehog. The crystals started to crack even more. "How did that happen?"

"Shadow and Nazo got in the way and things got out of hand a bit from there."

"I gave the two of you simple tasks and you can't even get them half right. If things go down hill then it won't just be the end of me, it will also be the end of you two and Yami. Speaking of that wolf, where the hell is she?"

Just then, Yami appeared and this shocked the others. She was beaten up and she was bleeding from the arms, shoulders, legs and maybe a cut above the eye. Part of her clothing was gone so it revealed her left shoulder and her left leg, but we won't go into detail until much later. "Whoa, what happened to you?" Sora asked.

"What does it look like, I nearly got murdered by that pesky hedgehog." Yami answered, clearly pissed off.

"Which one?" Mephiles asked.

"Who else besides that girl? She may seem weak but even one word of her family and she packs a mean punch that's much worse than you're Chaos Lance."

Raze somehow calmed down a bit, but turned his back on them. "Mephiles, see what you can do about those wounds. Sora, go and find River and I don't care how, just do it."

"Yes Master Raze." Mephiles and Sora said before them and the limping Yami left the room.

The crystals went into the ground once they left and Raze walked over to the throne. After sitting in it, he placed his right hand over his head like he was getting a headache, which was somewhat true, and used his left arm to support the right. _Why is it that when Yami is out and about, that girl shows up?_ He mentally asked. _Looks like I'm gonna have to step in and change things a bit. But, with that girl running around. . ._


	13. River the Fox

**Chapter Thirteen: River the Fox; First Encounter, A Shadow on the Loose**

The group appeared at Tails' workshop with grim expressions. Tails, Amy, Jade andAuroraknew that the island sank due to watching the screen, but didn't know about Miki. No one was more made than Aurora except for Mango, who was angry at herself for leaving her close friend behind. However, both Jade and Aurora were happy to see that Mira, Katrina, and Scorch, who was in his emerald, were brought back so there was that. They then turned to each other and were wondering the same thing: How were they going to get Miki back from the ocean?

Tails turn back to the screen and saw something he didn't notice before. "Hey guys, it looks like the last Chaos Emerald is swimming right towards her." He grabbed everyone's attention and the people who were shocked most were the protectors.

"How is that possible?" Sonic asked.

"Lets ask Mira since she said something about it earlier when Miki and I were up in theArctic." Mango offered and turned the lavender and white wolf, making her uneasy. "You said something about River and something about two echidnas, so spill it." This grabbed everyone's curiosity.

"I'm not going to be taking orders from a pathetic mortal like you, kitty cat." Mira said coldly, but when she called Mango 'kitty cat', the she-cat grew enraged at that but also Mira's behavior.

"Do you have any idea what kind of a situation we're in? What if Miki gets captured by Mephiles or Yami because you're not telling us anything important?"

"Because what I know is not important as of right now, so stay out of it."

"I can't stay out of it now because my best is in danger and we can't be able to rescue her because we used up a lot of energy up on that volcano."

"She can rescue herself."

"You're not listening!" Mango shouted at the top of her lungs, hurting Mira's ear drums. "She used up a lot of energy within the past two days and she has used up the last bit of energy on that island. I know this because I have been with her for years and I know when she's weak or in danger. She still is now and I can't do a damn thing about it because you're not cooperating with us."

"It's not my problem to begin with."

Mango then slapped her in the face, shocking the others. "It's not just you're problem, it's everyone's because you're the protector of the Cosmic element and we had to get trapped in this mess. Do you think that we wanted this to happen at this time in our lives? Do you think that after years of suffering we have to face the fact that our love ones may not make it out?" It was at this point that Mango was on the edge of having tears and Mira saw this. "Why can't you just understand that there are people around you that need help? Are you that blind and too proud of yourself to even realize that?"

Before Mira could even think of an answer, before anyone else could think for that matter, Mango took off running outside. Nazo, Jade and Sonic were the only ones that saw the tears that the she-cat was bringing. There was a dead silence as they were shocked. Finally, it was Amy and Tails that ran after her. Uneasiness was in the atmosphere as Mira turned and looked at the remaining members of the group. She then saw the look that Nazo was giving her: Anger and hatred

"That was very well uncalled for, Mira." The hedgehog said after stepping forward. "You should know that we were put in that situation as well when Raze escaped the second time. We all felt what Mango is feeling now for her friend, feeling helpless to protect the ones that we loved so much. You know what it felt like back then."

With that, Nazo ran out of the workshop, but was heading in a different direction than Amy and Tails. The others turned to the screen and saw why.

After making contact with the water, Miki opened her eyes and swam to the surface. She inhaled a big breath of air before having a wave come on top of her, making her go back into underwater. She didn't want to risk swimming after using up all the energy that she had nor did she want to risk staying underwater for a long time so she floated back to the surface. Again, she was brought back underwater, but this time, she stayed under because she didn't have enough strength left to do anything. It was amazing how she was able to stay awake, but she was beginning to fall into slumber.

However, before doing so, she saw a figure swimming towards her. It wasn't a hedgehog figure like before, but it was a fox figure. He wasn't swimming like a normal person, but Miki didn't really care. She sensed Chaos energy coming off of him and she knew that it had to be the protector of the Blue Chaos Emerald. Relief over filled her so she then collapsed into slumber.

After a while, Miki slowly opened her eyes and saw the sun shining through the canopy of the trees. Wait, trees? The hedgehog immediately sat up and looked at her surroundings. She was in a forest, but she also heard loud cars a few miles away. She was in theforestofMystic Ruins, a few miles south ofStation Square, maybe ten at least. She had good long distance hearing she was able to tell.

"You're already awake?" A male voice asked. Miki turned and saw a deep blue fox with sky blue eyes, lighter blue vest, pants and boots leaning against a tree a few feet away. "Give the girl only five minuets and she's already up and about."

"Who are you?" Miki asked, confused a bit.

"My name is River the Fox, protector of the water element and the elder spirit." The fox answered.

"Really? You don't look old at all. You look like you could my dad's age last time I saw him."

"I have that effect on people." River said as he stood straight up. "Your name is Miki, right?" Miki nodded, confused on why the fox asked. "Just as I thought, you do know where the others are right?"

"Yeah, just head south of here and you should find Tails' workshop."

"That won't be necessary." A new voice said. The two turned to the origin of the voice and saw Nazo walk out from behind a few trees. He turned to the old fox. "Looks like you're safe and sound."

"Surprised that I manage to escape, hedgehog?" River asked. Him and Nazo both looked at each other in the eye and Miki sensed tension between the two. She could probably see little lightning shocks going between the two so she decided to back up a few feet. However, she stopped as her ears twitched and she sensed a new kind of energy. This one was a lot colder and darker than Yami's energy and it was really overcoming Miki's energy that she gained back after her very short nap.

The two protectors snapped out of the tension as they sensed the energy and the dark wind started blowing again. However this time, this wind had a bit of shadowy mist in it and the wind whirled around the trio. Suddenly, Miki began hearing a noise in her head and images started to fill it too. After being overwhelmed by the energy, Miki collapsed onto her knees and held her head as she was starting to get pain. Nazo saw this and ran over to her side to make sure that she wasn't in serious pain while River stayed where he was.

Just then, the blue fox saw an in coming attack and jumped out of the way, landing a yard away from Nazo and Miki. The two protectors then turned to where the attack landed, seeing something in the shadows over there. It was hard to tell who it was at first, but what they saw made them feel power-less. Miki looked up and saw what they saw as well. The dust cleared away and the person was as clear as day light.

Standing in the shadows was a dark hedgehog with five quills standing up and four staying down behind his back. He had purple streaks going down from the tip of the five quills and stopped at the top of the head. He wore black clothing that had dark purple symbols and dark purple boots with a white stripe going down the center. His purple eyes stared intently at the trio, but mainly at River and Nazo. "I thought I might find you two here."

"You already had your chance to beat me earlier, Raze." River said as he stood in a defensive position in front of Nazo and Miki.

"I'm not just here to destroy you, old timer. But I'm here to destroy those two as well."

_That's him? That's the Raze character they were talking about?_ Miki asked herself. She felt Nazo's grip on her wrist tightened, signaling her that they needed to get out of this location now. Of course, due to her stubbornness, she wanted to stay and see what kind of powers that Raze has.

_Summon me._ A voice whispered in Miki's head and it wasn't a friendly one either. _Summon me now, Hikari._ The name Hikari then struck Miki as if she heard it before.

"Well that's not going to happen any time soon, Raze." Nazo said as he stood by River's side. "As long as the protector of Light is still alive then we still have a chance to seal you back into the Master Emerald."

"Is that right, Reko?" Raze asked, obviously taunting the cyan hedgehog.

_Why did he just call Nazo Reko? Is there something else that's going on that the others don't know about?_ Miki was more confused now. But then again, who wouldn't be other than the other protectors.

Just then, Raze started to glow in a freakish black aura and the trio didn't like it. He then started to for a sword out of that aura, the blade being as black as the darkest shadow in the night and the handle being dark purple, and looked ready to strike. River, having more energy than Nazo and Miki combined, formed a solid water like sword as well and was ready to strike. After a few heartbeats, the two moved so fast that Miki couldn't keep track of until the two collided. "Get out of here, both of you, now!" River shouted to them as he pushed Raze back.

Nazo grabbed Miki by the wrist and the two ran from the battle field. Miki looked over her shoulder and saw Sora following them. Nazo saw a glimpse of the fox and ran faster, almost dragging Miki across the forest floor. They than had to stop because Sora managed to get in front of them and he was ready to attack. "You're not getting away that easily." Sora said as he pulled out his sharp dagger.

Nazo and Miki backed up a step but an energy sphere came out of no where and nearly hit them, missing them by a few feet. Miki freaked out about it and got closer to Nazo. The two turned and saw Mephiles charging at them, now in his third form and claw stretched out. Miki jumped out of the way and into the branches, expecting Nazo to follow her but the other hedgehog stayed where he was and stopped the claw. He then gave Miki a look and she knew what it meant: Get out of here now while you still can.

Miki nodded and started jumping from one branch to the tenth branch away. She was doing good so far until she missed and landed hard on the ground, hurting her legs and lower back. She dusted herself off and then got kicked in the back, sending her a few feet away and landed on her stomach. She got up onto her knees but as she did, a claw grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up into the air. Miki looked down and saw Yami using her left hand(?) instead of her right. She tried to get out of the grasp of her arch rival, but after using up all of her energy on the island, she barely had enough energy to even lift her arms now.

"If you think that you could be able to dodge this one, then you might want to think again." Yami said as she tightened the claw, not letting any air come in or out. Miki struggled for breath, but she felt that her neck was going to break any moment. She closed her eyes, hoping that the spirits would contact her friends in some way and that they would come and save her.

She felt Yami's claw let go and the white hedgehog dropped to the ground. She coughed as she inhaled a lot of air at once, but she was now fine. She looked up and saw Mango in a defensive position between her and Yami. The said wolf was in a crouch and was beyond not pleased to see the orange she-cat, almost to the point of unleashing her rage. "You lay another hand on Miki and you answer to me, got that?" Mango asked, clearly challenging the wolf.

"You little pest, I'll be sure that you won't live to see your friend's death." Yami said back as her left claw was glowing in a dark aura. She then charged at Mango, claw stretched out.

Mango blocked the claw using her upper arm and countered with a punch in the gut. However, she failed to notice the right hand that was coming at her. Mango was then tossed a few feet away to the left and slammed hard into the tree. She was forced to turn into her house cat form, but she was low on energy as well. Miki ran over to her side and made sure that Mango was okay, but the orange cat had its eyes closed. "Mango, get up." Miki said as she shook the cat a little, trying to get her awake.

_Summon me now._ The voice said in her head, this time, more darkly and louder.

"Your little friend has lost her energy on that island like you." Yami said as she walked over. "It's no use trying to get her up and going again."

"Shut up!" Miki shouted as she stood up. Yami noticed something different about Miki, but was also familiar. Miki's blue eyes had turned to that deadly red shade again. Miki's shadow was also doing something that was very unusual for a shadow to do. "I have enough of you and your taunts! You don't have any idea how it feels like to be put in a situation that involves your friends, you just don't understand!" Miki's shadow just then surrounded her as her fur turned from white to pure black. The shadow then formed a cage like ball around Miki and let out a burst of energy.

What ever was in a one hundred meter distance from Miki was caught in the energy burst and was either destroyed or sent flying. Mango was sent fly when the burst happened, the trees turned to tooth picks, but Yami was able to with stand the burst. The wolf looked at Miki and saw that she was holding her head for a reason. "I won't...let you take over me." She breathed out.

Yami then realized what it was, but she was hesitating on what to do. She then jumped in front of Miki and touched the hedgehog on the forehead with her claw. Miki returned to her original form and all of that blackness and shadow went directly to Yami's claw, forming a sphere. Yami backed up as the sphere disappeared and watched Miki collapsed to the ground unconscious. The wolf was ready to attack, but she was being held back by something. She then disappeared into black mist as she sensed a energy coming.

After Miki disappeared into the forest canopy, Nazo pushed Mephiles back. The cyan hedgehog then heard Sora coming up from behind so he flipped backwards and kicked the fox on the back, making him go flying into the demon hedgehog. The two brought themselves back onto their feet, but realized that Nazo was just standing there, not doing anything but staring off in the direction that Miki went. His ears twitched as he sensed something not right. He then changed to his wolf form and ran to a nearby ledge. Mephiles and Sora were deeply confused, but they were about to find out what Nazo was hiding from.

Only after a minuet, a very powerful gust came from Miki's direction and not only destroyed the trees, but also sent Mephiles and Sora into the air as they were being carried by the wind and debris. Nazo wasn't really affected from where he was thanks to being down on a ledge. The gust moved on and Nazo saw something shining in the sky heading east. He realized that it was the Blue Chaos Emerald, but he still felt River's physical form on ground level a few yards away. He knew that the old timer knew what he was doing, so Nazo went to check on Miki.

The trees were turned to rubble if they were caught in the gust so it was a little hard to walk on. But Nazo was not walking nor jogging. He was running. Something was telling him that he needed to get to Miki's side now. However, with this much debris, it was hard to see the ground and it was very easy to loose his footing. He then felt something and he had to run faster.

It wasn't long before Miki was in sight, but she was lying on the ground. Nazo then turned back to his form when he was only a few feet away. He then walked up to her and saw what a normal person wouldn't see: Miki had no shadow. Nazo grew concerned for the hedgehog, but knew that she needed lots of rest before anything else could be done. That pretty much goes for everyone that was to point of having no energy. He turned her over, placed his left arm underneath Miki's shoulders and lifted her up slightly. He then placed his right arm underneath her knees and lifted her off the ground. Nazo had no trouble carrying Miki in his arms since she was extremely light, but this felt awkward since they haven't introduced themselves properly. They eventually will and he knew that much.

He started walking, but he was being careful because Raze could still be nearby. Miki was breathing, but slightly so Nazo quickened the pace. After a few minuets of walking, he saw that a pile of debris moved a little. Then out popped Mango, badly hurt and bleeding. Nazo gently set Miki down and ran over to Mango. "Are you alright?"

"A…little, but I think I can walk." Mango said as she tried to stand up, but she collapsed to her knees. She then changed to her house cat and tried to stand on her paws, but the results were the same.

"Looks like I have to carry the both of you." Nazo said as he lifted Mango up with one arm and walked back to Miki's side. He then put Mango on top of Miki's stomach and lifted them into his arms.

_You're enjoying this aren't you?_ Mango mewed.

"Don't get your hopes up." Nazo said before speed walking to Mystic Ruins using a different way. Raze was more than likely still out and about so Nazo kept his guard up a lot more than usual. He then looked up at the sky and saw the sun beginning to set, turning the sky orange. Nightfall was fast approaching and Nazo knew that he needed to get to Mystic Ruins quickly before the moon would show up.


	14. Questions That Need Answers

**Chapter Fourteen: Questions that Need Answers**

The moon shone brightly over Mystic Ruins as almost everyone was resting at Tails' workshop. Most of the protectors were inside their emeralds and were kept in capsules so they could recover the energy that they lost, or at least, half of that energy. Tails and Amy shared a room while Sonic was out on the roof and Miki and Mango had their own room. Shadow decided to sleep on the couch since he wanted to be alone. Nazo was standing outside a few feet away from the workshop and stared at the moon while in deep thought.

_Why did Raze show up when he knows that he can't be able to last in this world while he doesn't have full power yet? Was he trying to risk fighting Miki? Even in the state that she was, Miki could've have taken him out with physical strength._

Nazo's ear twitched as he heard a small rock roll against the surface of the ground. He turned to the origin of the sound and saw River climbing down the rocky hill. The old fox was slightly limping, but he wasn't too badly hurt. "River." Nazo greeted coolly as he walked up to the older protector. "Why am I not surprised that you're not worn out unlike the others?"

"Raze's power doesn't last as long in day as it does at night." River answered. "How are the others doing?"

"They're resting in their emeralds." Nazo answered, knowing that River was referring to the other protectors. "They should have some strength by tomorrow and should be able to walk around, if that and be able to use their basic attacks."

"Then shouldn't you be resting too?" River asked as he started walking to the workshop.

"One of us has to stay up and keep look out in case Raze would try to attack." Nazo followed.

"Don't worry about that. He and his warriors are as tired as we are so they won't be able to attack for a few months. That will give us plenty of time to be able to seal him back inside the Master Emerald before the next Solar Eclipse which should happen at the end of the year."

"But what about the protector of Light? We need him in order to seal Raze away."

"He's here among us, he just needs to realize that when the time comes, Reko."

"Do me a favor and don't call me that." Nazo said angrily. "It's already bad enough that Raze had to call me that in front of Miki."

"Just be glad it wasn't Shadow that was there or he would've kept asking and then the other mortals would soon start asking."

"Point taken." Nazo said irritably.

While some of the others were sleeping soundlessly, Miki was the only one that wasn't sleeping. In fact, she was wide awake and it was more than likely past midnightso it was probably a bad thing for her. She stared at the ceiling with her arms behind her head as what Yami said earlier echoed through her head. _"It's useless to do something that you can't succeed in, but you already experienced that before, have you?" _Then what Yami said after that has Miki on edge. _"It's useless to try and resist what has happened in the past, especially after what happened to your mother, Serena."_ Miki sat up when the thought of her mother came to mind. "Just how the hell did she know about what happened?" Miki asked herself.

Mango was still sleeping on the other side of the bed, curled up like a ball, so Miki moved slowly out of bed. She walked over to the door, opened it slowly and walked out. She didn't even bother closing the door behind her as she walked down the hall. She came to the hanger and saw that the doors were opened at the end. The planes in here haven't been used in awhile, but it never hurts to have the engines cooled before they would be ready to use. She then walked out and looked up at the moon. Some of the things that she could remember played in her head, filling her with sadness. The pour five year old that day seeing her mother dead right in front of her and with no one there to comfort her other than her father, that is now somewhere in the entire world. But one thing still bothered Miki, and she was going to have that problem fixed soon enough.

"One of these days Yami, you're going to tell me what happened that day. I promise you that." Miki said with her voice filled with anger, hatred and determination.

"Why don't you just ask her yourself?" A voice said from behind. Miki turned and saw River.

"Do you really think it's easy as that? I can't just walk up to her and say "Hey, do you want to talk about what happened eleven years ago?" After attacking me twice, do you really believe that she would turn over a new leaf for two minuets? What is it that she has against me other than that we aren't on the same sides?"

"Well it never hurts to try now does it?"

"Okay, I'm sorry but you just don't understand."

"You had a difficult past to deal with and you want answers. I understand that and Nazo can relate to that as well."

"Is Nazo his real name? Or is Reko?"

There was silence between the two when the question was spoken. "That will be explained when the time comes." River finally said.

"That's what the other protectors are saying. The others and I need to know right now because if none of our questions are answered, there's going to be tension between ourselves and we would eventually turn against each. I don't want that to happen; especially now considering Knuckles is somewhere and we have no clue where he is. I want to make sure he's safe, okay and well away from the Raze person." Miki said calmly, but River could tell that there was anger trying to get out. She was good at keeping self control when it's needed.

Again a moment of silence, but this time it was broken by a blowing wind coming from the east. It was a somewhat gentle wind, familiar and had slight energy power in it. Miki knew that energy from somewhere, but she couldn't place it. "Your echidna friend is still alive, just barely in the clutches of Raze." River finally said.

"He's been with Raze for the past few days?"

"Sadly." River said with sadness. "I was going to rescue him myself, but I had little time before my life force would end in Raze's castle. Knuckles is strong, which made him last this long. After all, he did survive the wrath of Perfect Chaos when Pachacamac and his tribe tried to use the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds to conquer over the other tribes."

Miki nodded at that. She had heard about the story of Perfect Chaos and how Pachacamac's daughter,Tikal, sealed herself and Chaos inside the Master Emerald. She also heard that Chaos somehow broke free of the Master Emerald and nearly whipped outStation Squareby flooding it. Luckily,Tikalcame by and helped save him from causing anymore damage. This was before Shadow came into the lives of the Sonic Heroes.

"Either way, we can use the time what we have to figure out a strategy on dealing with him and the other three."

"Or we can use this time to train and for some explaining to be done." Miki protested. "I have much of my past to figure out and Yami is the only one who knows about. I would like to have that knowledge before Raze is put down for good."

"Some things are best kept secret until the time comes, Miki Hoshiko. You're still young and have to learn that sometimes, what you want to hear isn't always the best things to remember." With that, River left the hanger and Miki alone.

"What you want to hear isn't always the best things to remember." Miki repeated as she turned back to the moon. She kept thinking it over and she knew what the eldest protector was saying. She wants to know what happened to her mother that day, but the information can change the end results of this battle.

"Yami, why didn't you kill her on the spot?" Raze asked the black wolf. The two were in a healing room and one of the chaos-like black creatures were bandaging Yami's wounds since they reopened from Miki's burst of energy. The black creature made sure to avoid the fur on Yami's left arm because…lets just say the fur is beyond natural.

"Master Raze, I have my reasons for doing so. She was bundled up with negative energy and it was trying to over come her own mind. If that happened, she would still have her physical form, but she would be thinking differently and her power would be too much to handle even for you at this point in time. She was resisting, of course, but it was a battle that she wasn't able to win and it wasn't just that negative energy that wasn't the only thing trying to take over her body either."

That last part caught Raze's interest. "It wasn't?"

"No Sir, it was also her _shadow_ that was trying to take over as well. I separated the two so that we would have the upper hand, but she had a mind of her own."

"She got away didn't she?"

"Yes, but we can send Mephiles to go after her and-"

"No." Raze stopped her from continuing. "Mephiles and Sora failed me enough times as they did and their planning something. You're the only I can trust, Yami." Raze saw that Yami's wounds were bandaged up so he signal the creature away. It respectfully bowed its head before leaving the two alone.

"Do you know if they're going to over through you?"

"That may be what they're trying to do, but it won't matter because by the time they do, I'll have full strength. Until then," Raze kneeled down so that the two were at eye level and he gently gripped her chin, making Yami go slightly red. "You have every bit of my trust."

The black wolf nodded as she was too shy to speak. Raze leaned in and kissed the wolf on the lips, making Yami jump a little, but she relaxed. It lasted for a few seconds before they parted. They stared at each other in the eyes before Raze left the room. Yami followed him out, but went in a different direction. As she walked down the hallway, she came to some windows and the moonlight was shining through. She looked up at the moon and could've sworn that she saw the face of the white hedgehog. "One day." Yami said with hatred before continuing her way.

up.


	15. Day Off

**Chapter Fifteen: A Day Off**

The sun rose up from the east, casting morning light over Tails' workshop. The first one up was Tails himself, and he was up a few minuets before the sun, and he went over to check on the Chaos Emeralds. On the computer screen, it showed that the energies were normal, but he had his doubts. He heard the door open and he turned. He was expecting to see one of his friends, but it Nazo that walked in, tired and messed up a bit. "I don't think a good morning would go for standards?" Tails asked nervously.

"Not until I know for sure that Raze and his men aren't going to attack today." The hedgehog said as he walked up to the Chaos Emeralds. "How are they doing?"

"Their energy readings are perfect, but that's coming from inside. I don't know about outside though."

"If they contained any physical damage when they were outside the emerald, then they would be healed when they returned back inside their emeralds. The emeralds are their healing chambers for physical damage so to speak."

"So, long story short they're healed fully, including energy wise?"

"Yep."

The doors opened again but this time, it was Mango that walked in. "Hey guys, have you seen Miki this morning? She wasn't in the room when I woke up."

"Miki does have a tendency to disappear in the morning, Mango. I'm sure she's somewhere around the workshop." Tails ensured. The she-cat left the two to look for her friend. "Sometimes she worries about Miki too much." Tails shook his head.

"How did the two meet up anyways?" Nazo asked.

"Pet shop."

"Then how does she-"

"You sure ask a lot of questions considering what the emeralds see you see."

"Well excuse me for being curious. For the record, the Chaos Emeralds have been onAngelIslandever since that incident so I have no idea what's been going on for the past years."

"Really?" Tails questioned. Nazo nodded. "Guess I forgot about that."

Before any more could be said between the two, the doors opened again but it wasn't Mango that walked in. Surprising the two, it was River that walked in. "A word Nazo?" He asked the hedgehog.

He sighed and walked out with the blue fox. They walked a few feet away from the room Tails is in so that way the two tailed kitsune wouldn't here. "So what is it?"

"I talked to Miki last night and from the sound of it, she has a lot on her mind and she's focused on them all at once."

"And? Why do I have to know?"

"I think it would be best if she wonders off from those for awhile so she won't be so on edge every second of the day."

"Let me rephrase the question: Why do I have to _get involved_?"

"Well, Miki has met the others and actually had a conversation with them and you're the only one she hasn't made contact with. So, with Raze out of the way for the time being, this would be a good time to catch up."

"River-" Nazo started to complain but the fox continued.

"Her mind needs to settle and this is a good time for you to make some interaction because it's going to take awhile before Raze will be sealed back inside the Master Emerald. Besides, you two have some things in common than any other person and you seem quite fond of her."

The last part made Nazo go a little red, either with anger or embarrassment. "I am _absolutely _not! What makes you think that I would fall for a mortal girl besides that simple fact?"

"She's strong and stubborn like you, she's a little clever and unpredictable, and you can learn a lot from her. Face it, for a female mortal; she has skills beyond any mortal men I came across on this planet."

"That point is true."

"Hey guys." A female voice greeted. The two turned a found Miki standing there. "Mango said that I would find you two here. So what were you talking about?"

"Nazo here wants to ask you something, dear Miki." River said as he pushed Nazo towards the female, leaving him only a few inches apart. He then left.

Nazo turned to protest against asking Miki something, but the fox was gone in an instant. _Man that guy can be a tick sometimes._ Nazo thought.

"So, what is it?" Miki asked, eyes shining with wonder. The look she was giving him made Nazo lost on words. "What is it, cat got your tongue?" Then Miki thought for a second then back off a bit. "Well, actually, in this case it would have to be fox, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah…Anyways, I wondering," Nazo started, "Since it's going to be awhile for Raze to get sealed back thanks to River chucking his emerald to who-knows-where, do you think that…well…"

"Yes?"

"Do you think that…you can show me around town? I mean, if have to do some training with Sonic or Shadow then-"

"Of course I can show you around. I don't have anything better to do anyways." Miki said before Nazo could finish. With that, Miki practically dragged Nazo out of the workshop and headed towards Central City. The ice protector didn't seem to mind on bit strangely, but he knew that he was going to get River back at some point later.

The eternal moon hovered above the castle as at the top of the castle, Raze was sitting in a meditation position. His fur turned from black to a sleek silver shade as he sat under the moonlight. There were some scratches along his arms after yesterday's battle with River, but he was fortunate that he didn't get struck in the head. He focused on the moons energy, trying to draw it in some, but he heard a slight sound from behind him. "What is it?" He asked irritably.

"Master Raze, I'm sorry to disturb you but should I go search for the shadow that escaped now?" A soft voice asked. It was Yami so Raze calmed down a bit. If it was Sora or Mephiles, that would be a different story.

Raze thought for a moment. As much as he wanted Yami to go search for Miki's shadow, he needed her as well to keep an eye on Mephiles and Sora. But he could do without her for a few days at most. "Alright, look at every location possible on this planet and make sure that you don't miss a spot." Raze said as he stood up and turned. "Be sure that no one will recognize you and while you're searching," Raze then tossed something at the black wolf. "Give that to Nazo when you see him. And please try to control your urge to fight any of the protectors or that girl."

"No promises on that, but I'll make sure that Nazo will get this." Yami said before she disappeared in black mist.

Raze sat back down in a meditation position, but he was focused on something else. _That shadow better not be trying anything._

Upon arrival at the city, none of the residents seem to be bothered by Nazo's presence. In fact, most of them probably didn't even know who Nazo looks like after all these years. It kind of felt weird for the hedgehog to be around people that lived in a town that he first destroyed and more over, he had to be back with this girl that probably doesn't even know what he's done in the past. He was hoping that he wouldn't be grabbing attention from people that would recognize him, but they would probably feel safe considering he's with Miki.

"Well, we better get started." Miki said as she started walking. "I need to get dinner supplies for tonight."

"What are you going to be fixing?" Nazo asked, very curious as to what she and her friends eat. He never tried food that the earthlings make, only because he hardly ever gets hungry.

"Amy and I are going to be cooking a variety of things. Do you and the other protectors eat anything?"

"As far as I know, it's been a really long time since we even had one meal. Since we only go outside of the emeralds when Raze is out of the Master Emerald, we only feed on energies that the emeralds get every time they get involved in a situation. Sometimes-"

"When the energy builds up to a point that the emerald can't handle, that energy forms a being based on the emerald." Miki finished before Nazo did. "Knuckles told me about that a few years back when he told me about how you were born from the negative energy of the Chaos Emerald and tried to destroy this planet. I don't blame you for doing that."

"You don't?"

"Hey, you were nothing but negative energy so what do you expect? At least you're not _that_ negative now and that is a good thing for all of us, especially for the other protectors."

"I see you're point."

"So what do you think that the other protectors eat?"

"If I remember correctly, they don't have a specific food that they like, just the food group. Aurora and Katrina like fruits, Scorch likes dairy, Jade and Mira like vegetables, and River likes grain. I have no clue why he does but he does."

"And you're a meat eater."

"I'm proud of it, thank you."

"I didn't mean to offend you. I'm a meat eater myself, get it from my dad."

"What is your father like anyway? You hardly ever mention him; in fact, you don't mention your family at all."

Miki stopped were she was and looked directly at the ground. Nazo smelled sadness coming off of her and was starting to wonder if he made a mistake of bringing up a topic that doesn't need to be discussed. "It's…complicated to talk about it." Miki said, barely above a whisper. "I don't even want to think about it, all it does is bring bad memories, even just saying my name brings bad memories."

There were a few moments of silence before Nazo placed a hand on her shoulder, causing Miki to look up at him. "I know how it feels; the other protectors know how it feels to be away from our families. They're probably long gone now but we know that they're watching us every second of the day."

"I guess you're right on that." Miki said as she started walking again with Nazo by her side. "I study in the spiritual field so I know exactly what you're saying. It's also because I study in this field that I'm able to form energy attacks. Sometimes, I can even see spirits."

"I…" Nazo stopped there because he was hearing faint voices. Female, gossiping voices and he was getting a little irritated at it. He stopped where he was and tried to figure out where they were coming from. Turns out they were coming from a group of girls not too far ahead of them. "Damn them." Nazo said, getting Miki's attention.

"Come again?" Miki asked as she stopped too and gave the other hedgehog a confused look. "Did you say something?"

"Do you know those girls up ahead? They're talking about you." Nazo said as he pointed to the girls that were now starting to walk towards them.

Miki looked and she had this irritated look on her face. "And just when I thought that things were going to calm down today." Miki said to Nazo as he walked to her side.

"Well, if it isn't Miki Hoshiko." A turquoise hedgehog said as she stopped a few feet away. It was clear that she was the leader to Nazo because she was in front of the other three. "I'm surprised that you manage to find a guy that is willing to last five minuets with you."

"Cut it out Sara, I'm not in a very good mood after what has been happening for the past few days." Miki said, trying to hide the pain after hearing her last name.

"Really, you don't look like you're having a bad time." A golden hedgehog said. The two pink cats, one with green eyes and one with blue, nodded in agreement.

"You know these drama queens?" Nazo asked, making the girls angry.

Miki had to use most of her self control to stop herself from chuckling. "Yeah, but they're not worth my time."

"Not worth your time? You are really going to regret that, Hoshiko." The pink cat with the green eyes said.

"Have you forgotten that I'm the toughest person out of everyone in school? I think that you had a bit of sunburn on that small brain of yours, Daniel."

"Do you really want to go?" Daniel's twin offered as she stepped forward.

_Am I the only one here who has any sanity left?_ Nazo asked mentally. "Ladies, can we please get along?"

"So who's this cute? I'm surprised that he wants to hang out with a freak like you." Sara asked.

"He's a cousin of mine and came to town yesterday." Miki answered, making Nazo a little confused but he played along. "His name is Joey and I'm showing him around since his family is out on business."

"Well, if that's the case, then you won't mind if we take him off your hands for a while? You know, just so that way it won't be a burden." The golden hedgehog said.

"Actually, I would rather stick with my cousin." Nazo said as put his arm around Miki's neck. "Now, didn't you say to that you wanted to show this great place?"

"Yeah, we better get going then." Miki said as the two walked past the two.

They were only a few feet away, but Nazo could still hear their voice and was mentally laughing at their reactions. "Okay cousin, what was that for?" Nazo asked when they were a good distance away and removed his arm.

"Just so that way they won't freak out when I told them your real name. So when you're in town, that's your name for now on. Is that fine for you?"

"Great, I just hope that they don't think that we're on a date."

"I hope so too, other wise I would be a great topic throughout senior year."

The two then showed up at the super market and got the things that they needed. They also ended up getting some things for breakfast tomorrow so they were more or less stocked. When they left, it was right around eleven so they decided to head for Miki's apartment. While walking, Nazo noticed that Miki had three plastic bags in each hand and they were the ones with the heavy stuff.

"Do you need help with those?"

Miki stopped where she was, put her bags down and gave Nazo this look. "I'm the strongest person in school, I can be able to manipulate my energy to form an attack, I can fight dark creatures and weird shadows, I can fight a giant fire monster, I can create a shield that can withstand lava for at least two minuets and I can turn to an angelic form. Do you really think that a few pounds are going to make my arms pop out of their sockets? Hell, I can have something that weighs twenty thousand pounds on my back and it won't even come close to crushing me."

"I can believe the first two, but twenty thousand pounds on your back? No one is capable of doing even ten hundred pounds."

"Do you really want to bet me on that?"

"Get up to that point and try to go beyond that, then…"

"Then you have to go out on an actually date with me." Miki finished, picked up the bags and started walking again.

_Really?_ Nazo thought as he followed, feeling like he was going to regret.

"Would you stop being so tense?" Nazo asked. Only after three minuets of entering the apartment building Miki was living in, the said hedgehog was feeling tight and well on her guard.

"There's a disturbance in the building and I can't seem to figure out what it is." Miki said as they walked up the stairs.

"And you think that it's Yami?" Nazo questioned, making the other hedgehog silent. "After what happened yesterday I don't think that she would be attacking you for some time. After witnessing the power that you are capable of doing, she would be training without resting days at a time."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do."

_Why does every one of the protectors don't give out clearer info?_ Miki asked herself as a vain popped on her head.

The two reached the top of the stairs and when Miki saw her door opened slightly, she stopped where she was while Nazo kept walking forward. "It's just Amy, you can relax." Nazo noted.

"How do you…"

"My wolverine traits help my senses increase to the point where I can recognize people's scenes."

"Right." Miki said sarcastically before walking again. "Hey Amy, we're here." Miki said as they walked into the apartment. It was clean as ever, but the leather couch was moved to an empty space along the walls and the table was moved back a bit so there could be room for everyone to sit at, hopefully.

"I'm in the kitchen you guys." A woman's voice called out. Miki and Nazo entered the kitchen and saw that Amy had pots out on the oven and plates were stacked to a side. "Thanks you two, I really appreciate it a lot."

"Any time Ames." Miki said, using the pink hedgehog's nickname, as she placed the plastic bags on a small table in the corner.

"Hey Nazo, can you help me out for a bit? I kinda need some extra hands and you're the one who knows what the other protectors like."

"Uh…sure." Nazo sort of accepted and heard a chuckle coming from Miki. "Don't you dare tell anyone else about this, got it?"

"Oh don't worry about her," Amy said as Miki went off to do something else. "She's a real secret keeper and she really is proud of it."

"Is she now?"

"Yep. Can you grab some vegetables and fruits that you got?"

Nazo did and brought them over. He noticed that there was a chef's knife and a cutting board on the left side of the oven. Amy was on the right side and was grabbing some spices out of the cupboard. "You want me to cut them?"

"Thinly, no thicker than a centimeter. I'm trying to make something so everyone can have a little of everything."

"Good luck trying to get the other protectors to eat any meat." Nazo said as he started cutting the fruits first. "They're vegetarians and I think that they never had a single taste of a tiny piece."

"And I suppose that you're the opposite of that?"

"I'm one of those who are willing to try different things. And since we're going to be stuck in this world for who knows how long, might as well try whatever's out there."

"You almost sound like Sonic in a way." Amy said as she grabbed some bowls and placed them on the oven. When Nazo finished with on fruit, he placed it in one bowl and moved on to cutting the other fruit. "He's willing to go to different places, whether on land or somewhere out on sea despite his hydrophobia."

"That does sound exactly what he would do, considering that he won't sit still for even a few minuets."

"Have you talked to him recently? Like an actual conversation, I mean."

"Yesterday." Nazo answered, not looking away from what he was doing. "He talked about how Miki was like a daughter to you and him and he talked a tiny bit about her father."

"Did he mention anything else?"

"Nope. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

There was a silence between the two until Nazo asked, "Can Miki really carry twenty thousand pounds on her back?"

"Are you kidding me? She can carry three _tons_ on her back for a year if she wanted." Amy said, looking up from what she was doing. "Her father even said that when she was only a few years old she was able to carry a full grown elephant. Why did you asked?"

"Just curious." Nazo said. _Great, one day of my life is more or less going to get ruined._

The sun was beginning to set, casting a deep twilight in the skies, as Miki was leaning against the railing on the sidewalk that was next to the beach. She stared at the calming water that rolled in and out. Thoughts were running through her head, but mostly about her encounters with Yami and what she said. The white hedgehog felt pain in her heart when the words from yesterday on that island came up. _Just how much do you know about my past?_

"What are you doing out here?" A voice asked. Miki turned and saw Nazo standing a few feet away.

"I can't be here without a guard?" Miki questioned as the other hedgehog walked close, but stayed a foot away. "I can take care of myself, you know."

"Yeah, but you're still weak on energy so you should have at least Sonic with you."

"Point taken." Miki said as she turned back to face the ocean.

Nazo also leaned on the railing to look at the water as well. It sparkled in the setting sun and reflected the twilight sky. It was beautiful to see, but he looked at Miki with the corner of his eyes. She continued to stare at the water but her white fur changed to a light orange due and her blue eyes had more shine as they reflected the light. He also saw pain in her eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?" He sighed.

There was a moments of silence before their ears twitched. Miki was the first to turn around and she had this displeased look on her face. Nazo turned around too and knew why Miki wasn't happy now. Standing a few yards away was Yami and she was just staring at them with her one eye. Tension was between the three of them and silence filled the atmosphere. Finally, after a few heartbeats, Miki took a step forward. "What do you want?"

"I was ordered not to cause trouble so you don't have to worry about a fight."

"That's a first." Nazo replied to the wolf.

Yami walked a few steps forward before stopping and turned to Nazo. "I was also told to give this to you."

The black wolf tossed something and Nazo caught it in a blink of an eye. How-ever, the moment he touched it, he felt a pain in his hand and made him drop the item. Miki caught it and looked at it with confusion on her face. In her hand was a black crystal that was casting off a weird ghostly kind of glow. Even though it somehow hurt Nazo, it wasn't hurting Miki. Then again, the hand the crystal is on is the one with the bracelet that was still there after all the events that were happening. Even Yami found this strange, but she was starting to have thoughts and didn't say a word about it. "What in the world is this?" Miki asked Nazo.

"A nice friendly gift from Raze." Nazo answered sarcastically.

"Now that you have it, I shall be on my way." Yami turned around to walk away but she was face to face with Miki. "You move fast for a weak hedgehog like yourself, Hoshiko."

"Learned from the best runners in the world." Miki replied after raising her eyes for a second. There were a few moments of and there was deep tension between the hedgehog and wolf as they both used every bit of their will to keep themselves from fighting. "How much do you know about my mother? And I would like a truthful answer."

"Let's just say that your mother and I go back." Yami said as she walked past Miki, bumping into her right shoulder in the process. "I'll admit that Serena was a strong and willful woman for her time. You and her are much more alike than what your father knows about."

"Wait, you know about my entire _family_?" Miki asked as she turned around but found that Yami disappeared. "Damn, she got away." _But at least I got some info, now just need to get the rest out of her._

While she was thinking, Nazo was in thought as well as he looked at his hand that he caught the crystal with. It now had a burned mark that went through his glove and burned the palm quite a bit. _What gave Raze the idea of wanting me to have the Dark Crystal? What is it your trying to tell me? Are you about to reach that level?_

While some have been answered, questions still haven't and more are popping up. Miki has some info, but that leads into wanting more. What message is Raze trying to send to Nazo, and how will it affect the heroes? Also, who is the shadow that Yami is searching for?

* * *

><p>The longest chapter in the entire story and sorry for not updating lately.<p> 


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